Vehicle control apparatus, vehicle control method, and storage medium

A vehicle control method, using a computer, comprising:

• recognizing a surrounding situation of a host vehicle;
• controlling at least one of acceleration or deceleration of the host vehicle based on a result of the recognizing;
• causing the host vehicle to operate in either of a first driving state or a second driving state that has a higher rate of automation or fewer tasks requested of a driver than the first driving state;
• and
• preventing a change of a driving state of the host vehicle to the second driving state in response to determining that a vehicle-to-vehicle distance between a following vehicle recognized by the recognizing and the host vehicle transitions from being less than a predetermined distance to being greater than a predetermined distance while the host vehicle is operating in the first driving state,
• wherein the second driving state is a state in which a task of holding the steering wheel is not assigned to the driver or a task of keeping eyes forward is not assigned to the driver.

A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium that stores computer-executable components that, in response to execution, cause a computer to:

• recognize a following vehicle that follows a host vehicle;
• control at least one of acceleration or deceleration of the host vehicle based on recognition of the following vehicle;
• cause the host vehicle to operate in either of a first driving state or a second driving state that has a higher rate of automation or fewer tasks requested of an occupant than the first driving state;
• and
• prevent a change of a driving state of the host vehicle to the second driving state in response to determining that a vehicle-to-vehicle distance between the following vehicle and the host vehicle becomes longer than a predetermined distance while the host vehicle is operating in the first driving state,
• wherein the second driving state is a state in which a task of holding the steering wheel is not assigned to the occupant or a task of keeping eyes forward is not assigned to the occupant.