Vehicle control device, vehicle control method, and storage medium

A vehicle control device comprising:

• a peripheral situation recognition unit configured to recognize a peripheral situation of a vehicle;
• a potential risk estimation unit configured to estimate a potential risk of encountering an obstacle based on a peripheral situation recognized by the peripheral situation recognition unit;
• and
• a driving control unit configured to compare a risk value obtained by digitizing the estimated potential risk of the real peripheral situation of the vehicle recognized by the peripheral situation recognition unit with a potential risk value obtained by digitizing a potential risk of the peripheral situation of the vehicle which is reproduced by superimposing information regarding the potential risk to the real peripheral situation recognized by the peripheral situation recognition unit, perform driving control in which the potential risk is considered when the potential risk value is equal to or greater than the risk value, and perform driving control based on the peripheral situation of the vehicle recognized by the peripheral situation recognition unit when the potential risk value is less than the risk value.

A vehicle control method for causing a computer to perform:

• recognizing a peripheral situation of a vehicle;
• performing driving control to control one or both of steering and acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle based on the recognized peripheral situation;
• estimating presence or absence and classification of a potential risk of encountering an obstacle based on classification of a recognized target and a positional relation between the vehicle and the target and performing the driving control based on an estimation result,
• comparing a risk value obtained by digitizing a potential risk of the real peripheral situation of the vehicle recognized with a potential risk value obtained by digitizing a potential risk of the peripheral situation of the vehicle which is reproduced by superimposing information regarding the potential risk to the real peripheral situation recognized,
• outputting a peripheral situation of the vehicle in which the potential risk is considered when the potential risk value is equal to or greater than the risk value, and
• outputting the peripheral situation of the vehicle recognized when the potential risk value is less than the risk value.

A storage medium storing a program causing a computer to perform:

• recognizing a peripheral situation of a vehicle;
• performing driving control to control one or both of steering and acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle based on the recognized peripheral situation;
• estimating presence or absence and classification of a potential risk of encountering an obstacle based on classification of a recognized target and a positional relation between the vehicle and the target and performing the driving control based on an estimation result,
• comparing a risk value obtained by digitizing a potential risk of the real peripheral situation of the vehicle recognized with a potential risk value obtained by digitizing a potential risk of the peripheral situation of the vehicle which is reproduced by superimposing information regarding the potential risk to the real peripheral situation recognized,
• outputting a peripheral situation of the vehicle in which the potential risk is considered when the potential risk value is equal to or greater than the risk value, and
• outputting the peripheral situation of the vehicle recognized when the potential risk value is less than the risk value.