VEHICLE CONTROL APPARATUS

A detection ECU detects, from an image captured by an in-vehicle camera, left and right lane markings defining an own lane which is a traffic lane in which an own vehicle is traveling, and performs following travel control to cause the own vehicle to travel following a preceding vehicle which travels ahead in the own lane defined by the detected lane markings. Furthermore, when determining that the measured inter-vehicular distance is shorter than a predetermined distance and at least one of the detected lane markings has become undetectable during execution of the following travel control, the detection ECU determines based on the estimated and calculated lane markings that the preceding vehicle has deviated to a traffic lane different from the own lane.