TRAVEL ASSISTANCE METHOD AND TRAVEL ASSISTANCE DEVICE

A travel assistance device includes a traveling boundary acquisition unit (101), a surrounding object acquisition unit (102), an obstacle determination unit (104), an avoidance determination unit (105), a blind spot determination unit (108), an avoidance section setting unit (107), and a vehicle control unit (112). The traveling boundary acquisition unit (101) is configured to acquire lane information around a subject vehicle. The surrounding object acquisition unit (102) is configured to acquire surrounding object information about an object around the subject vehicle. The obstacle determination unit (104) is configured to determine whether or not an obstacle hindering a travel of the subject vehicle on a subject lane where the subject vehicle travels is present, based on the lane information and the surrounding object information. The avoidance determination unit (105) is configured to determine whether or not the subject vehicle is allowed to avoid the obstacle by a steering control in an avoidance direction to avoid the obstacle based on the lane information when the obstacle is determined to be present by the obstacle determination unit. The blind spot determination unit (108) is configured to determine whether or not a blind spot area as a blind spot from the subject vehicle is present on an oncoming lane opposed to a travel direction of the subject vehicle when the subject vehicle is determined to be allowed to avoid the obstacle. The blind spot area is located in the avoidance direction with respect to the subject lane. The avoidance section setting unit (107) is configured to set an avoidance end position of an avoidance section to execute an avoidance control including the steering control in the avoidance direction according to a result of the determination of whether or not the blind spot area is present. The vehicle control unit (112) is configured to generate a travel route for the subject vehicle to travel from an avoidance start position to the avoidance end position of the avoidance section.