Patent ID: 7210829

Claim:
A vehicle interior illumination structure comprising, in combination, an instrument panel installed in a front interior area of a vehicle and located on the lower side of a front windshield glass, and a light-guiding illumination member disposed in said instrument panel, said front interior area being defined by the front windshield glass and opposed side window glasses on the rearward side of the front windshield glass, wherein: said instrument panel is formed with a step portion extending laterally at a height approximately equal to or above that of a mounting portion of a steering wheel shaft to said instrument panel, said step portion being defined in such a manner that a step upper surface located on the upper side of said step portion and a step lower surface located on the lower side of said step portion are formed in said instrument panel, and said step upper surface has a rear edge protruding in the rearward direction of the vehicle relative to a front edge of said step lower surface; said illumination member is arranged to extend laterally at a position which is adjacent to the front edge of said step lower surface and capable of preventing illumination light of said illumination member from directly coming within the field of view of a driver sitting in a front seat in the vehicle interior; and said instrument panel is provided with a lower manual operation element disposed adjacent to said step portion having a convex portion protruding from said step lower surface toward the vehicle interior, wherein said vehicle interior illumination structure is designed to allow at least said convex portion of said lower manual operation element to be hidden by said step upper surface when the driver is sitting in said front seat visually recognizes said lower manual operation element reflected on said front windshield glass.