Method for event-based override strategy for automatic high-beam control

A system for switching between manual and automatic control of a vehicle headlamp system that controls a headlamp state of illumination, the system comprising:

• a controller for controlling and monitoring a state of illumination of a vehicle headlamp system;
• a sensor coupled to the controller, the sensor for detecting illumination characteristics of a forward view of a vehicle headlamp system and providing an input to the controller, wherein the controller automatically controls a state of illumination for the vehicle headlamp system based on the sensor input;
• an input device coupled to the controller for inputting a state of illumination that manually overrides automatic control of the state of illumination;
• and
• the controller transitioning back to automatic control when the automatically controlled state of illumination matches the manually overridden input state of illumination.

A method for re-enabling automatic mode after manually overriding automatic mode of an automatic headlamp control system for a motor vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

• monitoring headlamp state in a controller;
• recommending a headlamp state from the automatic mode of the automatic headlamp control system;
• monitoring a driver request for headlamp state in the controller;
• and
• causing the controller to return to the automatic mode when the recommended headlamp state matches the driver request for a headlamp state.