Patent ID: 7576631

Claim:
A vehicle door handle assembly mounted to a door and coupled with a latch operable between a locked condition, wherein the door is prevented from opening, and an unlocked condition, wherein the door can be opened, the vehicle door handle assembly comprising: a handle housing pivotally mounted to the door, and having a latch actuator; a grip cover for complementary engagement with the handle housing to define with the handle housing a door handle grip, the grip cover incorporating at least one key identified with at least one non-numeric symbol, the at least one key being immovable relative to the grip cover; a sensor keypad comprising at least one sensor coupled with the latch, the at least one sensor being selectively light-transmissive; an illumination source assembly including at least one light source, the illumination source assembly being adapted for selective illumination to selectively backlight the at least one sensor and the at least one key; and an illumination source holder for holding the illumination source assembly to the handle housing; wherein the sensor keypad is disposed between the illumination source assembly and grip cover so that the at least one sensor is in proximate, operable registry with the at least one key and is activated when an object is in the vicinity of the sensor; and wherein a selected sequence of the at least one non-numeric symbol can define a lock/unlock code so that selection of the at least one non-numeric symbol in the selected sequence can activate the at least one sensor according to the lock/unlock code to selectively place the latch in the locked condition or the unlocked condition.