VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD AND VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE

A vehicle control method according to an embodiment is a vehicle control method to be executed by a controller for controlling a vehicle that travels in an area, wherein the controller is configured to: in a case where detecting occurrence of a disaster and determining that nobody is riding on the vehicle, cause the vehicle to move to a refuge place, and the refuge place includes at least one of a place in which the vehicle having taken refuge hinders passage of an evacuee toward an outside of the evacuation route and a place in which the vehicle having taken refuge prevents an evacuee from entering a dangerous zone.