Night Vision. Did it work?

[mistertudball]

I searched but didn't find much about Cadillac's early Night Vision system.  I recently saw an ad for John Glenn's 2000(ish) DeVille, which was loaded including this system, and I had totally forgotten about it.  A quick Google search shows that Cadillac pioneered it in 2000 and dropped it in 2004, but years later it came back in another form.  Did the early version not work or was it just too "out there" or expensive?

[D.Smith]

From what I have heard from owners with it they said it worked great.    It was a very expensive option.   $1995.00 and only available on the DTS/DHS

[Big Apple Caddy]

Although considered pretty cutting edge at the time, I think its effectiveness and desirability were mixed.  Some found it useful while others found it useless and/or distracting.  In the end, there probably just weren't enough buyers willing to spend the $2,000 or so for the option.

[TJ Hopland]

How did it work?  Did it turn the windshield into a auto dimming rear view mirror? 

[mistertudball]

From what I read, cars so equipped had a sensor behind the grill that detected heat via infrared and projected the image at the bottom of the windshield with warmer parts showing as whiter, and cooler as darker.  So, for instance, you could get the image of a deer about to jump into the roadway at night. 

[Big Apple Caddy]

Correct.  It used heads-up display.  It worked better under some circumstances, like on open highways or in more rural locations, than others.  Some simply found it too distracting just as some found other HUD systems that displayed things like current speed distracting.