Patent ID: 8825287

Claim:
A door latch system for a vehicle, the vehicle having a body defining an inside and an outside and a door having an exterior side associated with the outside of the vehicle and an interior side associated with the inside of the vehicle, said system comprising: an electric door latch mechanism movable between a latched position and an unlatched position; an exterior open switch disposable on the exterior side of the door for receiving an unlatch request from the outside of the vehicle; an interior open switch disposable on the interior side of the door for receiving an unlatch request from the inside of the vehicle; a controller in communication with said exterior open switch, said interior open switch, and said electric door latch mechanism, said controller configured to assign either a locked state or an unlocked state for each of said open switches and control operation of said electric door latch mechanism such that said electric door latch mechanism is commanded to move from the closed position to the open position in response to the unlatch request from said open switches when the respective open switch is in the unlocked state; a first indicator to visually display the locked state and/or unlocked state of said exterior open switch; and a second indicator to visually display the locked state and/or unlocked state of said interior open switch.