Pit Stop (what we’re calling super short, headline-free random thoughts): Wow the windshield “blind spot” ahead of the Cadillac Escalade IQ’s rearview mirror is enormous! The vehicle, like its Celestiq sibling, will feature “Ultra Cruise” semi-autonomous driving capability, leveraging cameras, radar sensors, and even LIDAR behind the windshield. That’s why you see that huge blind spot there. These are becoming more and more common on cars, though the one on the Cadillac Escalade IQ and the Celestiq are the biggest I’ve ever seen.
- September 14, 2023
- 26
- 1 min read
- 71 Comments
That would make a HUGE blind spot for me.
Well if it’s self driving, there’s no need for a windscreen with any visibility for the passengers in the front seats, is there?
I have been both passenger and driver in these.
GM’s avarice has never been more on display (no pun intended) than when behind the wheel of their body-on-frame big boys.
“Can you see? No? How about a bunch of cameras? No? We’ll you’re paying for them anyway! Cash or credit?!”
The Escalade especially is like piloting a big submarine in Subnautica.
The second row is, as Frank Costanza would say, the place to be.
Modern full-size SUVs should be illegal to operate without a CDL and limo plates.
That’s a hard no.
I know it’s unrealistic for roll-over protection to think cars could get back to having the outward visibility of the 1961 Olds 98 I had as my first car ( link to example, just not my example), but it’s sooo bad these days. I haven’t driven this, it could be a fair trade off for other functionality but my gut reaction is decidedly negative.
Between the crap on and around the rear view mirror and the wide A pillars in new vehicles the visibility sucks. There’s times when you can’t see stop lights. Find myself peering off to the side to see the light, is there a car there, a pedestrian ??
Thank goodness I was in a rental. Good to get back in my vintage Car..
Is it designed primarily for Asian markets (shorter drivers)?
That’s hideous from the outside. Not sure if it’s better hidden inside, but from the front view? Ew.
This ain’t a Pit Stop, this is a Blind Spot. This is how you miss the pits and hit the pace car.
As a tall person I hate this. The first thing I do in any car is move the mirror as far up as I can. Newer cars though, now have this crap which completly blocks my view when making right hand turns. And this one is oh so much worse.
Yeah, I highly doubt that’ll actually be in the way of your vision.
You are very wrong about that. Every right turn I make my view will be blocked.
Yeah, I’ll second this, being well over 6ft even a simple, small old style rear view mirror is enough blind spot that I can easily miss bikes and such, this mess would create a blind spot big enough to hide a freaking school bus. Considering that basically the entire head rest is hidden in the photo taken from in front of the vehicle, this would block way more than right turns, it would block the entire right side of the windshield for me. Anything to the right of the right side of the car would be non-visible, it would be like driving half blind.
And I’m willing to bet the seats won’t go low enough for us taller folk to be able to use the middle 1/3 of the windshield.
I don’t think this is much of a problem. My 2023 Mercedes wagon has one nearly as big if not the same size, and believe me, I never need to look through that part of the windshield. In fact, it’s a welcome sun block in a place the visors don’t work.
If you can’t see what’s there, how do you know you don’t need to see what’s there? The fact you’re not dead yet is not dispositive.
There might easily be a traffic light glowing bright red hidden in that blind zone. Hasn’t ever happened? How do you know? You can play Russian Roulette quite a few times before you lose.
It’s not like this is my first automobile. I’ve been driving sin 1976. I know where I need to be looking, and up and out the top of my windshield isn’t one of those places. And if there IS a traffic light I can’t see – first, I know if I’m stopped at a light (I sure hope you do too) so I know to stay back to where I can see it. If for some reason I can’t, there’s a traffic light display on the large screen. But if you learned how to drive properly, you know not to put your car where you can’t see it.
„i never need to look through that part“
How the hell would you even know that? Such a dumb statement
Huh. You haven’t seen the windshield on my car, or where this camera assembly is placed, yet you know I need to look up and out the window. Thanks for your brilliant insight.
In the 1940s and ’50s, a popular accessory was a massive external sunvisor attached at the top of each A-pillar. The problem was that these visors made it impossible to see traffic lights when stopped at an intersection.
The solution was the Traffic Light Viewer, a prismatic piece of glass that mounted on the dashboard or stuck to the windshield, providing a wide-angle view of what was obscured by the sunvisor, or at least a way to see what color traffic light was lit.
I’m sure we’ll soon see a screen at the top of the windshield that shows the view “through” the massive blind spot, much like truck cameras that show the rear view through an “invisible” trailer.
A certain segment of car enthusiasts will undoubtedly celebrate this feature as better than the old-fashioned “analog” windshield view, especially if the screen is controlled by pushbuttons on a yoke.
Maybe we could have the full all screens view from the vampire cars in Daybreak.
I did not know that these even existed. Thank you for a new vintage car accessory rabbit hole to dive into!
A righteous old accessory. I still feel the need to point this out whenever I see the sheriff from Pixar’s “Cars” (49 Merc, I believe?)
Poor kids are always so confused.
Is there a better way to integrate this into a car? It’s not going away, but would I rather lose windshield real estate or have a hump on the top of the car? I would love to see some mockups of that solution. Maybe Bishop could take a stab at it?
If Cadillac had this installed on their ’79 Coupe Deville Custom Phaeton, poor old Henry Hill would never have even seen those helicopters chasing him.
That may have been for the better for ol’ Henry.