System and method for controlling exterior vehicle lights on motorways

An exterior light control system for controlling exterior lights of a controlled vehicle, comprising:

• an imaging system configured to image a scene external and forward of the controlled vehicle and to generate image data corresponding to the acquired images;
• and
• a controller configured to receive and analyze the image data and for generating an exterior light control signal that is used to control the exterior lights in response to analysis of the image data and in response to a selected mode of operation, wherein one selected mode of operation is a motorway mode that is selected when said controller determines that the controlled vehicle is traveling on a motorway,
• when not in the motorway mode, said controller is configured to detect whether light sources are AC light sources using a first sensitivity,
• when in the motorway mode, said controller is configured to detect whether light sources appearing on a left side of the acquired images and below a specified height are AC light sources using a second sensitivity that is lower than the first sensitivity while detecting whether light sources appearing in the remaining portions of the acquired images are AC light sources using the first sensitivity, and
• when in the motorway mode, if said controller detects headlamps of one or more oncoming vehicle, said controller is configured to generate an exterior light control signal for reducing the brightness of the exterior lights.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon software instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to generate control signals for controlling exterior lights of a controlled vehicle, by executing the steps comprising:

• imaging a scene external and forward of the controlled vehicle and generating image data corresponding to the acquired images;
• receiving and analyzing the image data in the processor;
• generating a control signal from the processor that is used to control the exterior lights in response to analysis of the image data and in response to a selected mode of operation;
• and
• if the processor detects headlamps of one or more oncoming vehicle, the processor is configured to generate an exterior light control signal for reducing the brightness of the exterior lights, to determine a relative location within the acquired images of a headlamp closest to a central feature of the acquired images, and to select a delay that varies dynamically in response to the relative location of the headlamp, and wherein, upon determining that oncoming headlamps are no longer present in the acquired images that require the exterior lights to remain in a reduced brightness state, the processor is configured to nevertheless continue to analyze acquired images for the selected delay before generating an exterior light control signal for increasing the brightness of the exterior lights.