A vehicle control device (10, 10a), which creates a fusion target by fusing a radar target of an object that is in front of a host vehicle and acquired as a reflected wave of a carrier wave, and an image target of an object acquired by image processing of an image obtained by imaging the area in front of the host vehicle, and which controls the host vehicle in regard to the object detected as thefusion target, assesses whether or not the object has transitioned from being detected using the fusion target to being detected using only the radar target, and, when the object is determined to havetransitioned to being detected using only the radar target, assesses whether or not the distance to the object is a prescribed near distance. When the distance to the object is determined to be a prescribed near distance, vehicle control in relation to the object is carried out.