Vehicle control device and vehicle control method

Abstract

A vehicle control device includes a standard inter-vehicle distance setting module that sets a standard inter-vehicle distance in accordance with a velocity of a subject vehicle that is equipped with the vehicle control device, an inter-vehicle distance measuring module that measures an inter-vehicle distance between the subject vehicle and a preceding vehicle, an effectiveness ratio setting module that sets an effectiveness ratio on the basis of an inter-vehicle distance difference obtained by subtracting the standard inter-vehicle distance from the inter-vehicle distance, the effectiveness ratio indicating a proportion of an amount of an accelerator operation by a driver to be reflected on a drive control, and a drive control module that performs the drive control on the subject vehicle on the basis of the effectiveness ratio.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.