A system for selectively activating infrared lights in a vehicle cabin includes a controller comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer readable memory, two or more infrared illumination sources positioned within the vehicle cabin, the two or more infrared illumination sources communicatively coupled to the controller, an imaging device communicatively coupled to the controller and a machine-readable instruction set stored in the non-transitory computer readable memory of the controller. The machine-readable instruction set causes the system to perform at least the following when executed by the processor: receive image data from the imaging device, determine a location of an occupant in the vehicle cabin based on the image data, and activate a first infrared illumination source of the two or more infrared illumination sources that corresponds to the location of the occupant in the vehicle cabin.