US Patent Issued to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Toyota Jidosha on Aug. 25 for "Exterior lighting control systems for vehicles" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,715,393, issued on Aug. 25, was assigned to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (Plano, Texas) and Toyota Jidosha K.K. (Toyota, Japan).

"Exterior lighting control systems for vehicles" was invented by Alexander L. Paradis (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Frank A. Richards (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle includes a lighting control system including a sensor that is located at an exterior movable component of the vehicle. When the exterior movable component is moved from one position to another position, the pressure sensor sends a signal to a controller that activates exterior lights of the vehicle...