Cadillac Introduces Second-Gen Rear Camera Mirror

Anyone who has driven a new Cadillac may be quite familiar with the Rear Camera Mirror that launched a few years ago on the luxury automaker’s various vehicles. The feature provides a field of vision four times greater than that of a traditional rearview mirror, while providing a clearer view that’s unobstructed by headrests, passengers, or the car’s roof or rear pillars. And for the 2019 model year, Cadillac is introducing the second iteration of its Rear Camera Mirror technology, with some notable improvements.

Improvements

The second-generation Cadillac Rear Camera Mirror features the following improvements:

• Frameless Design
• Increased brightness adjustments, from 3 to 5
• Zoom function
• Tilt/position adjustment (of camera)
• Increase in the screen and camera resolutions from 1280×240 pixels (Gen 1) to 1440×300 pixels (Gen 2)

Second-generation Rear Camera Mirror on 2019 Cadillac XT4

Availability

The refreshed 2019 Cadillac CT6 and all-new 2019 Cadillac XT4 are the first models to gain the second-generation Rear Camera Mirror.

Other Cadillac models should follow suit in receiving the improved feature for the 2020 model year. Notably, the Cadillac model range will be all-new for the 2020 model year.

About Cadillac Rear Camera Mirror

In December 2014, Cadillac wowed the world by introducing the Rear Camera Mirror – a revolutionary new technology that replaces the traditional rear-view mirror with a streaming digital video feed of what’s behind the vehicle.

First-generation Rear Camera Mirror in 2018 Cadillac CT6

The Rear Camera mirror initially launched on the 2016 CT6 and 2017 XT5 before making its way to the CTS and Escalade. The technology received several awards from various journalistic associations, magazines and publications, including:

• 2015 “Best Of What’s New” award from Popular Science
• 2016 Best New Safety Technology from Automotive Journalists Association of Canada

The system works via a specialized camera mounted at the rear of the vehicle that’s different from the camera used for the backup camera. The camera features a specialized lens that reduces glare and adjusts for low-light conditions better than an auto-dimming mirror. To prevent the camera from getting dirty or fogging up, the lens is covered in a water-shedding hydrophobic coating. Cadillac introduces a dedicated washer in 2017. The video image captured by the camera is transmitted to a display taking up the rearview mirror.

Researchers and engineers working on the new rear camera mirror have been awarded ten different patents, one for the streaming video mirror and nine for its video processing capabilities. The patents cover different video features such as camera image calibration, de-warping, glare reduction, and camera hardware design.