Cadillac’s new screens crisper than a 4K TV
You may not have heard of organic light-emitting diodes, but you’ve likely seen them: curved high-definition televisions and, more recently, folding smartphones use OLED technology. The 2021 Cadillac Escalade marks the first OLED application in a production passenger vehicle, which allows the infotainment screen to have a dramatic concave appearance. But the benefits of OLED technology in a car run deeper than style.
WHAT IS AN OLED, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Conventional light-emitting diodes (LEDS) have been around for decades. They create light by pushing electrons through a semiconductor material; more simply, they’re tiny and highly efficient light bulbs. In cars, modern infotainment screens are liquid crystal displays (LCDS) backlit by LEDS, which can only be set up as flat screens because LCDS require two layers of rigid glass. Since cars require screens to be backlit enough that they’re visible in complete darkness or direct sunlight, the rendering of black on an infotainment screen tends to look washed out.
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), by contrast, is composed of organic compounds that respond to electric current by emitting light on their own. This eliminates the need for backlighting and allows each pixel’s off state to be true black, creating richer contrast. In the Escalade, the pixel density is set at twice the density of a 4K TV. The OLEDS are arranged on a film that’s as thin as paper. That allows it to be flexible, which means it can be applied with curvature against a plastic substrate rather than requiring a pair of rigid glass panels like an LCD does.
IS THE SCREEN REALLY 38 INCHES WIDE?
Well, sort of. The entire setup is 38 inches wide on a diagonal, but it’s actually divided into three separate screens: a 7.2-inch touch screen to the left of the instrument cluster; a 14.2-inch screen to house the instrument cluster itself, and another 16.9-inch touch screen for the largest screen to the right. The left and right screens are technically part of the same panel, while the instrument cluster is laid out on top of them as a separate piece.
The right-side screen functions in a similar manner to most infotainment systems, although Cadillac points out that this horizontal layout doesn’t require drivers to take their eyes as far away from the road as the vertical configurations used by some of the brand’s competitors.
The gauge cluster, using the smaller touch screen to the left, can be adjusted to display in four different modes. Three of them are familiar to Cadillac owners: the standard-gauge view, full-screen map navigation and night vision mode.
The fourth mode features augmented reality, with graphics overlaid onto a view provided by the forward-facing camera set just below the rear-view mirror, which means it sits behind the windshield and can be kept clean using the wipers.
This view uses graphic visualizations to add turn-by-turn navigation instructions onto the image, using arrows that increase in size upon approach to help drivers know where their next turn will be. This effect is mirrored in the surround-sound audio system, which brings the sound of the audio instruction closer to the driver as the turn approaches and plays from either the left or right-side speakers to match the navigation directions. How this will play out in its real-world functionality remains to be seen, but it’s certainly intriguing.
WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG TO APPEAR IN VEHICLES?
Because the environment in and around a vehicle isn’t nearly as consistent as your living room.
“OLED is widely available in consumer electronics, like OLED TVS, but that’s consumer-grade,” said Harry Ng, product manager for Cadillac Canada. “To change that from consumer grade to automotive is a huge jump because to survive in the automotive environment, that means it has to work at 40 degrees Celsius down to -40, anything in between, (at) high humidity, low humidity.”