Driving assistance system with short-distance ranging

A method for operating a driving assistance system of a motor vehicle, comprising:

• operating a dual-mode light emitting diode (LED) module to emit visible light as part of a driving-light system of the vehicle;
• monitoring a distance between the vehicle and an object using a longer-distance sensing unit;
• and
• operating a controller to, in response to a determination that the distance has fallen below a threshold value in a range of 20 cm to 40 cm, activate the LED module to emit infrared light, and activate a receiver to detect infrared light reflected from the object, and determine distance to the object therefrom.

A method for operating a driving assistance system of a motor vehicle, comprising:

• operating a dual-mode light emitting diode (LED) module to emit visible light as part of a driving-light system of the vehicle;
• operating a longer-distance sensing unit to monitor a distance between the vehicle and an object, and to detect a length of a parking gap;
• and
• operating a controller to, in response to a determination that a) the distance has fallen below a threshold value, b) the vehicle is executing a parking maneuver, and c) the length of the parking gap is above a minimum maneuvering length dependent on a length of the vehicle and below a short-distance maneuvering length, activate the LED module to emit infrared light, and activate a receiver to detect infrared light reflected from the object, and determine distance to the object therefrom.

A method for operating a driving assistance system of a motor vehicle, comprising:

• operating a dual-mode light emitting diode (LED) module to emit visible light as part of a driving-light system of the vehicle;
• operating a longer-distance sensing unit to detect a length of a parking gap;
• and
• operating a controller to, in response to a determination that a) the vehicle is executing a parking maneuver, and b) the length of the parking gap is above a minimum maneuvering length dependent on a length of the vehicle and below a short-distance maneuvering length, activate the LED module to emit infrared light, and activate a receiver to detect infrared light reflected from an object adjacent to the parking gap, and utilizing distance information from the receiver to complete the parking maneuver.