US Patent 11964559 Vehicle control device and vehicle control method

This vehicle control device includes: a distance measurement unit that measures the distance between a vehicle and a preceding vehicle; and an engine control unit that starts up an engine when, in comparison to a distance measured by the distance measurement unit once a host vehicle has stopped and an engine mounted in the host vehicle has stopped, a distance newly measured by the distance measurement unit increases by at least an offset amount that indicates the amount of increase in distance used to determine whether to start up the engine.