Travel control device, vehicle, and travel control method

A travel control device, comprising:

• a direction indication determination circuit that determines whether or not a direction indication by a direction indicator of a vehicle is activated, based on a signal from the direction indicator;
• a travel control section that performs a switching control for traveling of the vehicle between a follow-up travel and a driving travel, the follow-up travel causing the vehicle to follow a preceding vehicle traveling in front of the vehicle so as to keep an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle at a target inter-vehicle distance and the driving travel causing the vehicle to travel so as to keep the velocity of the vehicle to a target vehicle velocity;
• and
• an inter-vehicle distance detecting section that detects the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle during the follow-up travel,
• wherein
• the travel control section switches traveling of the vehicle from the follow-up travel to the driving travel to pass the preceding vehicle when the vehicle satisfies a first condition that it has been determined that the direction indication is activated and that the inter-vehicle distance exceeds a predetermined distance, during the follow-up travel, the predetermined distance being set in advance, separately from the target inter-vehicle distance, based on a change in the inter-vehicle distance when the vehicle passes the preceding vehicle.