Patent ID: 8768597

Claim:
A vehicle control device comprising: information acquisition circuitry that acquires information relating to a vehicle speed decreasing point where a decrease in vehicle speed is induced in front of a host vehicle; and traveling control circuitry that, when at least one of the host vehicle has reached a predetermined distance before the vehicle speed decreasing point concerning the information acquired by the information acquisition circuitry and when a predetermined time has come before the host vehicle reaches the vehicle speed decreasing point concerning the information acquired by the information acquisition circuitry, controls the traveling of the host vehicle such that the inter-vehicle distance from another vehicle behind the host vehicle increases; wherein the traveling control circuitry identifies another vehicle having a vehicle speed decrease tendency for which the possibility of a decrease in vehicle speed is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value, and at least one of (i) when the another vehicle having the vehicle speed decrease tendency has reached a predetermined distance before the vehicle speed decreasing point and (ii) when a predetermined time has come before the host vehicle reaches the vehicle speed decreasing point, controls the traveling of the host vehicle such that the host vehicle travels in parallel with the vehicle having the vehicle speed decrease tendency.