Abstract: First commercial automobile night vision systems are already available on the market. These should assist the driver in difficult situations involving poor visibility, particularly in darkness or fog. To this end, systems of this type have an active infrared illuminating device (2), a camera (3) for recording infrared images, and an image display (1) for playing back the image information obtained by the system. In doing this, the activation of the active infrared illuminating device (2) ensues according to an evaluation of operating parameters (5) and parameters (6) of the surroundings (4). In addition, according to a feature of the present invention, a controller (7), which is independent of the evaluator (4), is provided for directly activating/deactivating the image display (1). The controller (7) enables the driver to immediately obtain information regarding a successful activation of the night vision system.