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How the 2023 Honda Pilot TrailWatch's Off-Road Camera Works (on the Two Trims That Get It)

Honda always keeps an eye on the road – and off it – with the new 2023 Pilot all-terrainer. Or so the Japanese claim in a company's educational (read "promotional") video presenting one of the vehicle's technologies – the TrailWatch. The catch is that this new feature is not available on all the model's versions.
TrailWatch, available on select trims on the 2023 Honda Pilot 10 photos
Photo: Honda
The Japanese manufacturer probably had enough of looking up competition's exhaust pipes when it comes to off-roading. They engineered their 2023 Pilot to go anywhere and come back with comfort and ease. Introduced as the most capable Honda in the badlands where roads are just approximative and sometimes very unfriendly to cars, the Pilot boasts brand-unprecedented earth-roaming skills.

This is what Honda says, anyway, and we'll let time and gearheads prove the Asians right or wrong. However, since this is the age of smart-everything and ubiquitous machine intelligence, cars are bragging with ever-increasing numbers of driving aids for every single situation imaginable.

For some people, that's about as much fun as doing taxes – the computers tell you what you need to know and do and often take control altogether. (It sounds like marriage, to be old-fashionedly honest).

However, for drivers who have never experienced the Nirvana of fully controlling a vehicle on public roads, these aids are probably welcome. Cameras, sensors, radars, astronomical precision, antiseptic levels of care and safety, and omnipresent connectivity.

Take the Pilot mentioned above: it's an off-road vehicle with all-wheel drive, high ground clearance, a powerful engine, and a list of driving aids to fill the Grand Canyon. Among these is a Big Brother exterior camera system that can show you every speck of dirt on the road – be it in front of or directly under the car.

It's called TrailWatch (the video is self-explanatory), allowing the Pilot driver to have military-grade visual situational awareness. In short, the person behind the wheel can simultaneously see both sides of the car, what's under the front bumper, or behind the vehicle.

It's not ground-breaking technology – the Mercedes EQS SUV has something similar. The eyebrow-raising part is that Honda offers the option on just two of the five Pilot trims: the range-topping Elite and the dirt track-oriented TrailSport.

For some mysterious marketing reason, the other three package versions - the base Sport, the EX-L, and the upper-level Touring - are forbidden from this "see-all-and-off-road-safer" option. Having every single prospect available for the most expensive model is perfectly reasonable.

It's downright common sense to install the TrailWatch feature on the hill-climbing TrailSport trim. But it's a mysterious sales tactic not to have the multi-camera system available for the other three builds (not even as an extra cost add-on).

If you consider cladding your off-road adventure with the latest in-car tech and Honda Pilot is your tool of the trade, watch out for this little TrailWatch marketing detail. It's a cool feature for people who can only do with high-tech, and it may come in useful if getting out of the car is not one's idea of tarmac-less four-wheel adventure.

Alternatively, you can do it the old-fashioned way. When in doubt - stop, get out, learn your surroundings, plan, climb in, and drive on. That used to be the norm for a very long time when cars and computers were sold separately and had little to nothing to do with each other.

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About the author: Razvan Calin
Razvan Calin profile photo

After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads.
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