A control device and method for a vehicle with a light which is designed to illuminate an area in front of the vehicle, including an image capturing device, which is designed to capture image data for an area in front of the vehicle which is illuminated by the light in a switched-on state, and to output the image data, and including a calculation device, which is coupled to the image capturing device and is designed to calculate from the image data a light color that the light emits, and output it.