We Take A Hands On Look At The 2021 Cadillac Escalade’s Massive Curved OLED Display

We recently tested the 2021 Cadillac Escalade and one of its most interesting features is its high-tech digital display.

As Cadillac proudly points out, the Escalade has the industry’s first curved OLED display and it boasts twice the pixel density of a 4K television.

It consists of three separate screens including a 7.2-inch driver information center, a 14.2-inch digital instrument cluster and a 16.9-inch infotainment system. The latter two are notable for their size alone, but they are also unique as they avoid the so-called ‘tablet look’ of two rectangular screens pushed together like on the Mercedes GLS.

Driven: The 2021 Cadillac Escalade Finally Feels Like A Proper Flagship

The screens look great and all three are visible from a variety of seating positions. They also look good in varying lighting conditions, even though they’re freestanding units which eschew a traditional hood. While they can appear a bit dim in certain situations, they’ll still readable even in sunlight.

Since our Escalade ESV Premium Luxury Platinum was nearly fully loaded, we got to experience the display’s full potential. From the driver information center, you can select from four different displays for the digital instrument cluster.

The gauge option features a large speedometer that’s flanked by temperature and time displays on the left and a dynamic display on the right. The latter typically shows what’s playing on the radio, but it changes to display navigation and vehicle information when needed.

The second option is called Map and it turns the digital instrument cluster into, well, a large map. A speedometer readout sits up top, while other vehicle information resides at the bottom.

Then, there’s an augmented reality display which is pretty interesting. It shows a live camera feed from the front of the vehicle and adds navigation information on top.

When traveling to a destination, arrows will appear on the display and indicate if you need to turn left or right. The arrows grow in size as you get closer to your turn and this is amplified by audio cues which say “turn left” from speakers on the left side of the vehicle.

While some might think the augmented reality technology is a bit gimmicky, Cadillac officials say that it’s helpful when traveling in congested and unfamiliar areas. This is because its easy to know where to turn when directional information is being presented on top of a live video feed.

The fourth and final display is a night vision mode which uses infrared technology to see farther than the human eye. It can also detect pedestrians and large animals and highlight them on the display.

City slickers probably won’t have much use for it, but night vision can be helpful when traveling in areas without streetlights or in places where deer or other animals might run out in front of you. The system extends your vision much farther than what’s illuminated by the headlights and it allowed me to see trees and curves that otherwise wouldn’t be visible at night.

However, the night vision system does have its limitations as lane markings barely show up and everything is a bit blurry. That being said, it works as promised.

All in all, the displays in the 2021 Escalade are pretty good and help distinguish the model from the competition as well as Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon.

Picture credits: Michael Gauthier for Carscoops