Rear-View Video Display to Bow on Caddy CT6

General Motors Co.’s all-new Cadillac CT6 luxury sedan will be the first vehicle to offer a streaming high-definition rear-view video camera when it bows next spring. The optional system displays a high-definition video on a vehicle’s interior rearview mirror.

Zeeland, Mich.-based Gentex Corp. developed the video mirror display. Japan’s Sharp Corp. produces the camera and developed the video processing technology with GM. The carmaker says it has received 10 patents related to the technology—one for the streaming video mirror and nine for video processing—that apply to wide-field camera image calibration, de-warping, glare reduction and camera hardware design.

The video mirror improves a driver’s field of vision by as much as 300%, according to GM. And the exterior-mounted camera effectively eliminates visual obstructions such as rear seats, headrests, pillars, roof lines and passengers from a driver’s sight, allowing an unimpeded view of rear traffic behind and traditional blind-spots. Such obstructions can block 15% to 30% of the view from a conventional optical mirror, Gentex notes.

The high-definition (1,280x240-pixel TFT-LCD display with 171 pixels per inch) video feed also helps reduce glare and provides a crisper image in low-light situations than do traditional electrochromatic glass and auto-dimming rearview mirrors, the carmaker adds.

A water-shedding hydrophobic coating keeps the system’s camera lens clean. But if the camera becomes obstructed, drivers can disable video streaming and revert to a traditional electrochromatic rearview mirror via a toggle located on the underside of the mirror.  

Following the CT6 application, Gentex will supply a video mirror system for an unspecified BMW model. A prototype version of the system was tested in a Mini Countryman car last year.