Vehicle control device, vehicle control method, and storage medium

A vehicle control method comprising:

• recognizing, by a hardware processor, a surrounding situation of a host vehicle;
• controlling, by the hardware processor, at least a speed of the host vehicle based on the surrounding situation;
• and
• determining, by the hardware processor, a target relative position between two other vehicles in a state in which there is no vehicle in a second lane when the host vehicle is allowed to perform merge-point-related movement or a lane change from a first lane to the second lane, determining a target speed serving as a target when the host vehicle reaches the target relative position, and adjusting the speed of the host vehicle according to pole-assignment control based on a position deviation that is a deviation between the target relative position and a position of the host vehicle in a road extension direction and a vehicle speed deviation that is a deviation between the speed of the host vehicle and the target speed.

A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing a program for causing a hardware processor to:

• recognize a surrounding situation of a host vehicle;
• control at least a speed of the host vehicle based on the surrounding situation;
• determine a target relative position between two other vehicles in a state in which there is no vehicle in a second lane when the host vehicle is allowed to perform merge-point-related movement or a lane change from a first lane to the second lane;
• determine a target speed serving as a target when the host vehicle reaches the target relative position;
• and
• adjust the speed of the host vehicle according to pole-assignment control based on a position deviation that is a deviation between the target relative position and a position of the host vehicle in a road extension direction and a vehicle speed deviation that is a deviation between the speed of the host vehicle and the target speed.