Twilight Sentinel is an automatic headlight control system developed in the 1960s by General Motors (GM) for use in their vehicles. The system uses a photoelectric cell to sense outside light conditions and automatically control the vehicle's exterior lights.[3]
Twilight Sentinel was one of the first automatic headlights. Other automotive manufacturers developed automatic headlight systems at a similar time as the Twilight Sentinel. High-end Ford Motor Company vehicles came with their own similar apparatus, called "AutoLamp".[4]
History and development
The development of automatic headlight systems at General Motors can be traced back to the early 1950s. In 1952, GM introduced the Autronic Eye, an automatic headlight dimming system, for Oldsmobile and Cadillac models.[2]
Twilight Sentinel, which expanded on the concept of automatic lighting control, was introduced in the mid-1960s. By 1964, it was available as a feature in Cadillac vehicles.[1] The system was later expanded to other GM makes, becoming a popular feature across various models throughout the 1970s and beyond.[5]
Functionality
The Twilight Sentinel system depends on a light-detecting photoelectric cell to determine ambient driving conditions.[3] If the car is running in twilight or low-light conditions, the system automatically turns on the vehicle's exterior lights. The boundary at which the lights turn on may be able to be changed in more modern vehicles, but in most cases this point will be fixed by the manufacturer.[6] When sufficient ambient light is detected, the system turns off the exterior lights.[3] This automatic control can be bypassed by manually operating the headlights.[7]. The headlamps can also be set to stay on for a short time after the vehicle's ignition is turned off, providing a lit path from the owner's car to their front door.[3]
Some versions of the Twilight Sentinel system included a delay dial, which could be used by the driver to prevent unnecessary switching due to temporary light fluctuations, such as when driving under overpasses or through tunnels.[3]
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