Vehicle control device and method for adjusting acceleration suppression based on surrounding object information and switching driving modes

A vehicle control device, adapted to a vehicle for autonomous driving without driver operation, the vehicle control device comprising:

• an image sensor configured to acquire surrounding situation information of the vehicle;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• switch the vehicle to an autonomous driving mode or a manual driving mode;
• detect an operation on an accelerator by a driver;
• and
• execute a driving force suppression control to suppress a driving force of the vehicle when an operation amount of the accelerator exceeds a preset operation amount or an operation speed of the accelerator exceeds a preset operation speed, wherein
• when the processor switches the vehicle from the autonomous driving mode to the manual driving mode and executes the driving force suppression control, the image sensor determines whether there is an obstacle around the vehicle according to the surrounding situation information,
• when the image sensor determines that there is no obstacle around the vehicle, the processor continues to execute the driving force suppression control,
• when the image sensor determines that there is the obstacle around the vehicle, the processor stops executing the driving force suppression control, and switches the vehicle from the manual driving mode to the autonomous driving mode.