VEHICLE CONTROL APPARATUS, VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

A vehicle control apparatus includes a recognizer which recognize a surrounding situation of a host vehicle, and a driving controller which controls acceleration/deceleration of the host vehicle on the basis of a recognition result of the recognizer, wherein the driving controller causes the host vehicle to operate in any of a first driving state and a second driving state which has a higher rate of automation or fewer tasks requested with respect to an occupant than the first driving state, and changes a driving state of the host vehicle to the second driving state on the basis of at least one of presence or absence of a recognized following vehicle positioned behind the host vehicle and a following vehicle detection situation when the host vehicle is operating in the first driving state.