The 2023 Cadillac Escalade Interior Combines Gauges And Infotainment Into One Stunning OLED Dashboard
The latest iteration of the Cadillac Escalade has a host of new features to elevate the experience for everyone along for the ride, and that includes the driver. While the spacious passenger compartment remains the place to be, there have been numerous tweaks to make driving the Escalade as easy and as enjoyable to drive as possible. Optional magnetic ride control suspension, available Super Cruise hands-free driving assistance, and a whole host of external cameras make the big SUV surprisingly straightforward to live with.
The pièce de résistance, though, is undoubtedly right in front of you. At the center of all these improvements is a curved 38-inch OLED display, which is home to several important functions and conveniences. Introduced on the fifth-generation Escalade, the dashboard-spanning screen was the auto industry's first implementation of curved OELD, with Cadillac promising twice the pixel density of the 4K TV that might be in your living room.
How it works
The 38-inch screen is actually divided into three key parts. Its main component is the 16.9-inch touchscreen in the center, that houses most of the infotainment functions. Behind the wheel is a 14.2-inch digital gauge cluster, and to the left of that is a 7.2-inch touchscreen that has specific driver settings.
This smaller screen is a dynamic way of consolidating a number of functions that would otherwise need a collection of physical buttons, and arranging them here in a streamlined fashion is both convenient and easy to use. From here, the driver can customize the layout of the digital gauge cluster, have it display a map or activate two handy functions: AR mode and Night Vision.
The AR mode will overlay graphics atop a video feed of what's immediately in front of the car, with navigational directions as if they were floating above the street ahead of you. Night vision switches the gauge cluster to a monochrome infrared camera that aids drivers in seeing better at night or in inclement weather. It's great at spotting pedestrians and wildlife, and possibly other unforeseen hazards.
Solid functionality
As the car's centerpiece, the 16.9-inch infotainment screen houses a myriad of different tools to access, all of which are arranged as a collection of apps on the home screen. This ranges from typical things like navigation and entertainment functions, through to controlling features like the rear seat entertainment screens and the different camera options vital to negotiating tight spots in the massive Escalade.
What's important to note is how responsive and easy the actual screen is to use. The OLED technology is sharp, bright, and pixel-dense, and the apps have a quick-access tool bar that's always present regardless of what program is in use. This is a great way to further customize the experience for the driver, allowing them to put their most-used functions at the ready while also removing the necessity of another physical button to clutter up the streamlined interior. Clearly, it's not just us who thought so, either: Cadillac returned to the same theme with the 2023 Lyriq all-electric SUV.