Jaguar Cars Limited

Peter Howard Betts

Richard Dennis Shelton

David Philip Smith

A method of manually overriding automatic activation of an automatic headlight control system for a motor vehicle, headlamps operable in a high beam state and a low beam state, a high/low beam switch movable from a neutral position to a latched position and from a neutral position to a non-latched position for controlling the state of the headlamps and a headlamp on/off switch comprising a multi-position switch with at least a selectively automatic headlamp position is disclosed. The system includes forward-facing sensor for collecting light emanating from for instance a second vehicle, and a controller for controlling, when the headlamp switch is detected as being in the automatic headlamp position, the headlamp states as a function of the sensed intensity of the beam of light emanating from said second vehicle. The method comprises the steps of: monitoring the states of the headlamps when the headlamp on/off switch is in the automatic position, causing the controller to initiate an override mode if the high beam states is detected (step) and said high/low beam switch is detected as moved from the neutral position to the non-latched position whereupon the controller changes the headlamps to the Low state (step) when the High/Low beam switch is subsequently released to the neutral position. Such a method ensures the use of conventional stalk.

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Congleton, United Kingdom

Peter Howard Betts