VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To determine failure in a reverse travel detecting means using a wheel speed sensor incapable of determining the forward/reverse travel of a vehicle.SOLUTION: A vehicle control device has a first traveling direction determining means 21 for determining the traveling direction of a vehicle based on a reverse travel signal from a reverse travel detecting means (reverse switch 92), a second traveling direction determining means 24 for determining the traveling direction based on a signal different from the reverse travel signal, and a diagnosing means 25 for determining a failure of the reverse travel detecting means by comparing the respective traveling directions determined by the respective determining means 21 and 24. The second traveling direction determining means 24 has a wheel acceleration calculation unit 24b configured to calculate wheel acceleration based on a wheel speed in correspondence to a signal from a wheel speed sensor 91 that detects only the number of rotation of the wheel and a longitudinal acceleration calculation unit 24c configured to calculate longitudinal acceleration based on information different from the wheel speed, and determines the traveling direction of the vehicle by comparing the value correlated to the longitudinal acceleration and the value correlated to the wheel acceleration.