Depending on who you ask, less-than-stellar outward visibility has become either a hallmark feature or the Achilles’ heel of the Chevy Camaro. It’s especially noticeable when one enters the car for the first time, although the surprise wears off after several days (or weeks) of driving. Luckily, all that is about to come to an end. Kind of.
Longtime Camaro chief engineer, Hal Ollenhauser, announced that future Camaro models will not only come standard with Side Blind Zone Alert, but will also have one more high-tech feature that should make driving the sports car a little easier. That other feature is none other than Super Cruise – GM’s semi-autonomous driving technology.
“We started with Side Blind Zone Alert, but the team didn’t stop there,” said Ollenhauser. “By adding Super Cruise, it doesn’t matter how much you can or can’t see out of the Camaro since the car does the driving for you.”
Super Cruise started out as a Cadillac exclusive, originally launching on the Cadillac CT6. Shortly thereafter, GM made an announcement confirming plans to expand the feature to every Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC on sale in the U.S. within the next decade.
“We’re going all out to make sure that customers feel completely in control of their vehicle,” Ollenhauser said, referring to Super Cruise. “Hope everyone is [*inaudible*] happy now,” he added.
The Camaro’s outward visibility issues started to surface with the fifth-generation model, as owners complained about high belt lines and little Daylight Opening (DLO), particularly as a result of the A- and C-pillars. Many thought that the Chevy would take these complaints into consideration when developing the sixth-generation model on sale now. And though the Camaro team considered raising the roofline and/or lowering the beltline, in addition to several other changes that would have improved outward visibility, not one of these tweaks ever made it past a sketch.
At the same time, many customers were saying they would rather sacrifice visibility rather than see the Camaro’s winning design change too much.
Ollenhauser also shared some insight into the future of the Camaro, specifically about its design. Those hoping for better outward visibility of upcoming Camaro models shouldn’t get their hopes up. In fact, future Camaros will have even smaller windows and offer even less visibility than the fifth- and sixth-generation models.
“We thought about this long and hard, and the introduction of Super Cruise on Camaro will allow us to make the next-gen model even sleeker and with less glass. In fact, our goal over the years has been to make Camaro into one solid piece of metal. No glass. Just pure sheet metal. That’s what we’ll finally be able to do with Camaro seven,” said Ollenhauser on the sidelines of the Virginia International Raceway, where early prototypes of the seventh-gen Camaro were testing their Super Cruise racing abilities.
Now now… before you jump to the comment section to tell us all about it, we’d advise you to look at your calendar and note that it’s April Fools’ Day, and that this story is totally fake. Even so, the outward sight lines in the Chevrolet Camaro are no joke, and those who have ever driven or owned a coupe can vouch for that.
Comments
This story may be a joke but on a serious note what are the chances we actually get a gen 7 Camaro. With sales like this and the movement to mobility and electric do you think we might get an all electric coupe named a Camaro which isn’t really a Camaro? I hope I am wrong and we get another V8 Camaro.
While it’s April Fool’s Day.. one has to remember that Cadillac will be introducing a CT4 to replace the ATS which currently shares chassis with the current Chevrolet Camaro and if Cadillac is dumping the ATS for the new CT4, it should make sense that there will be a new Camaro in 18-24 months.
How about just restyle the car and raise the roof a few inches to give better visibility,
Happy April Fools to ya too GMA. Having one wont cure the other. That can only be accomplished by a better design.
I’m an idiot. I got all excited. What an awesome idea, having something that drives as good as the Camaro, but when you just want to hit the highway, it would drive itself. Sounded like the perfect combo!
These story’s are so lame.
The next gen is in development as the new platform is coming and confirmed. It will be interesting where the next model will go.
Dude you have the LAMEST comment on here. This whole thing is hilarious.
“Hope everyone is [] happy now”
That’s priceless if it were real. Hah
Dude, it is LAME…The whole April Fool’s Day thing is so overdone it is irrelevant now.
Although small minds are amused by small things………
Did you see the Honda Pastport?
I can see very well in my 67 Camaro and without passenger side mirror (as they were made). Make new car like first gen car and will have no issues.
Maybe Camaro should revert to the late 1970s-80’s design in an effort to snatch the sales crown back from Dodge and Mustang?
I love how we’ll have seen three generations of Camaro VS one for Challenger.
You had me going there for a minute. As the owner of a Camaro SS 1LE with a 6MT, the last thing I’d ever want is for the car to drive for me. Also, the rearward visibility isn’t an issue on the highway if you simply drive faster than everyone else.
I know GM only polls its existing customers (which seems like a guarentee way of not attracting new customers to the brand) but if gm would have made visibility better the Camaro would be in my garage. And yes I adjusted the seats and mirrors. At 6’2″ and mostly all torso I could never get it were either the roofline or the instrument cowl didnt completely obstructed my outside view. Shame as the car is perfect in every other way
Amen Brother!!! I would have bought 4 Camaro’s by if I could have seen out of them. Last GM car I bought was a 2006 Monte Carlo. Makes you wonder how many other sales they have lost just for this issue.
Making a light color headliner and interior would help with the coffin feeling of the interior.
The sad part is that this is something GM would do instead of actually correcting the real problems this car has. The last thing I want when buying any Camaro is for it to drive itself or any more electronic aides that will fail and drive me insane. They are already having loads of issues with the current blind zone alerting systems on several of there cars so I would opt out if it was a GM. And if GM doesn’t fix the side window and lower the belt line a bit this car will for sure be off my future shopping list!
What issues with the current blind zone alerting systems is GM having? I had it in two cars now and now issues at all the only time I’ve heard of issue is bad manufacturing and letting water in the sensor which is not a issue and anymore. I believe it was only a few models like first Gen Cruze’s. The other is in bad weather such as pouring down rain or heavy snow they show they aren’t working. Which happens in all cars with these systems.
At 6’1″, I love my Camaro5, and the low seating is a major factor in this. Even though this article is a joke, the “visibility issue” has become the popular complaint with the cool kids, and is mentioned in every Camaro review. There are a lot of cars and crossovers out there with much better visibility, and would be better options if that is a large factor in the purchase decision. If you want a great sports car that punches above its weight for the money, it’s the Camaro.
The executives at GM are deaf dumb and blind, when it comes to designing a Camaro, with small windows and poor visibility.
Listen to your customers needs, or they will go to another product such as Mustang, which offers the desired features.
Outward visibility is not a problem once you get used to it…wish auto media would stop insisting that it is. Problem is, you guys drive a lot of different cars, and never get a chance to really get familiar with them like owners do. With properly adjusted mirrors, there are fewer blind spots while driving my Camaro than my Sonic (tested fact)…I wish auto media would stop insisting that it is. Otherwise, love the April 1 article! LOL
What do you know??
SWEET JESUS, PLEASE KILL THIS GEN CAMARO SO YOU CAN RIGHT THE WRONGS AND MAKE A REAL DAMN CAMARO, THIS IS NOT A APRIL FOOLS JOKE, CHECK THE DATE.
I was hoping for a drone that permanently hovered over your Camaro, calling out traffic conditions to you over the radio, just like a spotter in NASCAR does for his driver.
Go back to the 5th gen, or 6th Gen, front, increase windows size slightly, lower the trunk. and as long as it looks like bumblebee, it will sell…and hope the next Transformers movies come out the same year..lol. I recall the Camaros pretty much sold a ton of cars in those years. Best looking Camaro in decades.
I have a 2011 Camaro convertible. The blind spots are crazy bad. I’m wondering since they’re going to try to improve on it for future makes, why don’t they recall what exists now and offer something to help us? we shouldn’t have to pay for their mistakes and we are in danger every day driving like that.
P. S. I’m not talking about the front I’m talking about the back. Also, as some other people have commented that there’s nothing wrong with it and only the kids are complaining, I’m 61. So shut up.