A vehicle control device has a processor configured to estimate whether an adjacent vehicle moves into the traveling lane ahead of a host vehicle in the merging terrain based on distance of a front vehicle with respect to the host vehicle, distance of the adjacent vehicle with respect to the host vehicle, and speed of the host vehicle, when there is the front vehicle and there is the adjacent vehicle, and set a first inter-vehicle distance between the front vehicle and the host vehicle in the traveling lane based on the distance of the front vehicle with respect to the host vehicle and the speed of the host vehicle or set a second inter-vehicle distance between the adjacent vehicle and the host vehicle in the traveling lane based on the speed of the host vehicle, when the adjacent vehicle moves into the traveling lane ahead of the host vehicle.