VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE AND VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD

According to an embodiment, a vehicle control device includes a recognizer configured to recognize a surrounding situation of a host vehicle and a driving controller configured to control one or both of steering and a speed of the host vehicle. The driving controller allows the host vehicle to travel in any one of a plurality of driving modes including a first driving mode in which the host vehicle is allowed to travel such that an inter-vehicle distance between a preceding vehicle and the host vehicle becomes a target inter-vehicle distance and a second driving mode in which the host vehicle is decelerated and moved to a target position. The driving controller designates an inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle that travels in front of the host vehicle as a first inter-vehicle distance when the host vehicle is allowed to travel in the first driving mode, designates an inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle as a second inter-vehicle distance when the host vehicle is allowed to travel in the second driving mode, and designates the target inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle in the second driving mode as a longer distance between the first inter-vehicle distance and the second inter-vehicle distance when the driving mode is switched from the first driving mode to the second driving mode in a prescribed state.