VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE, VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

A vehicle control device configured to recognize a surrounding situation of a host vehicle, control at least a speed of the host vehicle based on the surrounding situation, determine a target relative position between two other vehicles in a state in which there is no vehicle in a second lane when the host vehicle is allowed to perform merge-point-related movement or a lane change from a first lane to the second lane, determine a target speed serving as a target when the host vehicle reaches the target relative position, and adjust the speed of the host vehicle according to pole-assignment control based on a position deviation that is a deviation between the target relative position and a position of the host vehicle in a road extension direction and a vehicle speed deviation that is a deviation between the speed of the host vehicle and the target speed.