General Motors Rear Camera Mirror

Rear Camera Mirror is a General Motors safety technology that replaces the traditional rear-view mirror with high-resolution video streaming to a display in the rear-view mirror, thereby improving on the traditional inside rearview mirror by providing a wider, less obstructed field of view.

How It Works

The Rear Camera Mirror system is comprised of two primary components:

• Camera: the rear-facing high-definition camera features a high dynamic range designed specifically to enhance rear view lane width and maximize low-light situations. The camera reduces glare and allows a crisper image in low-light situations compared to a traditional glass electrochromatic, or auto-dimming, rearview mirror. The camera is finished with a water-shedding hydrophobic coating to keep it clean to maintain visibility regardless of the driving conditions.
• Display: the in-mirror 1280 by 240-pixel TFT-LCD display with 171 pixels per inch

Benefits

Most evident when driving, changing lanes, and checking for vehicles and traffic conditions, the benefits of the Rear Camera Mirror include:

• Providing a clear view of the view behind the vehicle, with no obstructions of passengers, headrests and the vehicle’s roof and rear pillars
• Improves field of vision by 300 percent, or roughly four times greater than a standard rearview mirror

Left: regular mirror with obstructions. Right: rear camera mirror with no obstructions.

“The closest comparison to this kind of rear vision would be driving a convertible with the top down,” said Travis Hester, Cadillac CT6 executive chief engineer. “In addition to the increased field of view, the technology eliminates any rear seat, rear pillar or passenger obstructions, allowing the driver an unimpeded view of the lanes behind and traditional blind-spots,” Hester said.

Washer Feature

For the 2018 model year, the Rear Camera Mirror gained a Rear Camera Mirror Washer feature that delivers a pressurized spray to the lens used the Rear Camera Mirror, thereby removing mud, dust, snow, ice and moisture from the camera’s lens.

Enabling And Disabling

Drivers can disable the mirror’s video streaming function by “flipping down” the tab on the underside of the mirror. Doing so reverts the mirror to a traditional electrochromatic rearview mirror.

Second Generation

The second-generation Cadillac Rear Camera Mirror was introduced on the 2019 Cadillac XT4 and 2019 Cadillac CT6. It 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

First-generation Rear Camera Mirror on 2016 Cadillac CT6

Intellectual Property

Researchers and engineers working on the GM Rear Camera Mirror have been awarded 10 patents – one for the streaming video mirror and nine for video processing. The patents cover innovations in the wide field of view camera image calibration, de-warping, glare reduction and camera hardware design.

Vehicle Availability

The technology is currently available on the following vehicles.

Announcement

General Motors and its Cadillac prestige-luxury division announced the Rear Camera Mirror in December 2014 for the 2016 Cadillac CT6.