Abstract: A vehicle control device is equipped with a merging point detection unit adapted to detect a merging point during a congested state on a planned travel route of a host vehicle, an entry space searching unit adapted to search for an entry space for the host vehicle within a merging destination lane, a countermeasure control unit adapted to perform a countermeasure control to contend with merging into the merging destination lane while continuing to automatically drive the host vehicle, in the event that a search result is obtained which indicates that an entry space does not exist.