Vehicle control apparatus

A vehicle control device, comprising:

• an environment map generating unit configured to generate environment map information based on external environment recognition information and host vehicle state information;
• a target trajectory generating unit configured to generate, based on the host vehicle state information and the environment map information, a target trajectory within a first period, and which is made up from a trajectory point sequence of a second period which is a divided portion of the first period;
• a vehicle control unit configured to perform automated driving based on the target trajectory, or to perform manual driving in accordance with driver operations;
• an automated/manual switching unit configured to switch between automated driving and manual driving;
• and
• an integrated control unit configured to control these elements;
• wherein, during traveling of the host vehicle, and after an end timing of the second period when switching from manual driving to automated driving is detected, the integrated control unit is configured to implement a control so as to perform automated driving in accordance with a predicted trajectory based on a previous instance of the target trajectory or based on most recent host vehicle state information until an end timing of the first period portion, and after the end timing of the first period portion, implement a control so as to perform automated driving along the target trajectory which is sequentially generated.