VEHICLE CONTROL APPARATUS AND VEHICLE CONTROL PROGRAM PRODUCT

In a vehicle control apparatus, an acquiring unit acquires factor information that causes acceleration or deceleration of the own vehicle while the own vehicle is subjected to the acceleration/deceleration control. A setting unit sets, based on the factor information, a maximum level of deceleration and/or a maximum level of acceleration. The maximum level of deceleration represents a maximum rate of reduction in a speed of the own vehicle during deceleration of the own vehicle. The maximum level of acceleration represents a maximum rate of increase in the speed of the own vehicle during acceleration of the own vehicle. A control unit is operative to perform (i) deceleration control of the own vehicle using the maximum level of deceleration as an upper limit for the deceleration control, and/or (ii) acceleration control of the own vehicle using the maximum level of acceleration as an upper limit for the acceleration control.