Night driving is where surprises live. Deer step out. A cyclist has no lights. A pedestrian appears at the edge of your low beams. A thermal dash cam is built for that moment, because it doesn’t care if the road is pitch black.
At CES 2026, Vantrue showed the Pilot 2, a three-camera dash cam setup with an extra thermal module and a big touchscreen. In Tom’s Guide’s CES dash cam roundup, the Pilot 2 is pitched as a do-it-all screen up front, with a 6.25-inch display and wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto baked in—so you’re not squinting at a tiny camera screen while you drive.
How the Thermal Dash Cam Works
Most “night mode” dash cams still rely on visible light. Thermal imaging plays a different game. It reads heat, then turns that into a picture where people, animals, and warm engines stand out as bright shapes against cooler pavement and trees.
That’s why this tech feels like “predator vision.” Digital Camera World says the Pilot 2 is meant to detect humans and animals at distance (it cites up to about 200 feet) and keep them visible even when your headlights don’t reach. The value isn’t that you “see through darkness.” It’s that you see heat against cold, which can pull your eyes toward danger earlier. As you can see from the vendor’s image, it is not perfectly clear, but seems to include “distance and ranging” (indicates distance to objects), and helps sort out what they are – car, human, or animal.
It still has limits. Thermal images don’t show fine detail like a normal camera. A filthy windshield, heavy rain, or fog can still ruin your day. And you’ll need a minute to learn what you’re looking at, because thermal video can feel abstract at first.
The right mindset: treat it like an extra early-warning layer, definitely not a replacement for careful driving. If it helps you spot movement sooner in poor light, you’ve already won.
Early CES coverage says Pilot 2 is expected around a $600 MSRP, with early Kickstarter pricing reportedly closer to ~$450—so if you saw $400 vs. $600, the cleaner read is “$600 retail, ~$450 early-backer.
My Verdict
If you drive dark rural roads, this is the most fun “safety gadget” I’ve seen in years. A thermal dash cam won’t stop bad luck, but it can buy you the one thing you never have at 55 mph: time to act.
But use it as backup, not a crutch. Keep your headlights clean and aimed right. Slow down when visibility drops. And remember the boring truth NHTSA repeats in its pedestrian safety guidance: nighttime is a hard-to-see condition, so “extra caution” is the whole game plan. Stack those basics with a thermal view, and you’re giving yourself a better shot at seeing the problem before it’s in your grille.
