Autonomous driving control method and autonomous driving control system

An autonomous driving control system comprising:

• a controller that executes an autonomous driving control for driving an actuator that controls a travel state of a host vehicle to cause the host vehicle to travel along a target travel route generated on a map, based on information of a surroundings of the host vehicle and information related to the travel of the host vehicle,
• the controller including
• a target passage gate setting unit configured to set one or a plurality of target passage gates through which the host vehicle is scheduled to pass from among a plurality of gates of a toll plaza, during passage through the toll plaza while traveling along the target travel route,
• a predicted passage gate determination unit configured to obtain a predicted passage gate of at least one preceding vehicle that is traveling in front of the host vehicle,
• a preceding vehicle presence/absence determination unit configured to determine a presence or absence of the preceding vehicle that has the predicted passage gate that matches the target passage gate of the host vehicle,
• a following travel control unit configured to control the actuator to carry out a following travel using the preceding vehicle as the follow target when the preceding vehicle that has the predicted passage gate that matches the target passage gate is present, and
• a traffic congestion determination unit configured to determine whether there is traffic congestion near a toll plaza, including in or before a toll plaza area, during passage through the toll plaza while traveling along the target travel route,
• the controller is configured to
• execute the autonomous driving control for causing the host vehicle to travel along the target travel route upon the congestion determination unit determining that there is no traffic congestion,
• carry out the following travel using the preceding vehicle as the follow target upon the congestion determination unit determining there is traffic congestion based on a determination of the predicted passage gate of the preceding vehicle by the predicted passage gate determination unit and the preceding vehicle presence/absence determination unit determining the preceding vehicle that has the predicted passage gate that matches the target passage gate is present, and
• on the other hand, execute the autonomous driving control for causing a vehicle to travel along the target travel route upon the congestion determination unit determining there is traffic congestion based on a determination of the predicted passage gate of the preceding vehicle by the predicted passage gate determination unit and the preceding vehicle presence/absence determination unit determining the preceding vehicle that has the predicted passage gate that matches the target passage gate is not present.