VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE, VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

A vehicle control device in an embodiment includes a recognition unit that recognizes a surrounding situation of a vehicle and a driving control unit that controls one or both of steering and acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle on the basis of the surrounding situation recognized by the recognition unit, and in a case where the vehicle merges into a second lane from a first lane in which the vehicle travels, and a section of the second lane before merging recognized by the recognition unit is downhill, the driving control unit makes a speed or acceleration of the vehicle higher than in a case where the section before merging is not downhill.