VEHICLE CONTROL APPARATUS

A vehicle control apparatus (100) includes a departure margin time computation unit (13) configured to compute a departure margin time until the vehicle departs from the running lane within a previously set steering control range and vehicle speed control range, a hand-release duration time measurement unit (14) configured to measure a hand-release duration time, a driving return time estimation unit (16) configured to estimate a driving return time until the driver in the hand-release state returns to driving operation, based on the hand-release duration time, and a control unit (17) configured to output an alarm to the driver when a difference resulting from subtracting the driving return time from the departure margin time is less than or equal to a first threshold.