US Patent 11295609 Travel assistance method and travel assistance device

A travel assistance method selects a merging destination vehicle that will travel in front or behind a host vehicle when the host vehicle merges into an adjacent lane, based on a history of whether other vehicles traveling in the adjacent lane allowed merging of a first preceding vehicle traveling in front of the host vehicle on a host lane and locations of the other vehicles traveling in the adjacent lane in a lane direction within a section in which the merging into the adjacent lane from the host lane is possible.