Driver-assist gizmos, easy as

Mercedes-Benz's Distronic Plus is the best adaptive cruise control system. Photo / Supplied

You could write a book on the latest generation of driver-assistance technologies from the world's premium carmakers. It'd be long and boring, full of jargon and ANRU (Acronyms Nobody Really Understands). Luckily, we've distilled the whole business down to five favourites - things we reckon really push the boundaries to make driving easier and safer.

For that reason, it's all about premium brands, because they're the ones that pioneer this kind of stuff. But don't worry, look for cutting-edge features like these in a mainstream model near you ... in about five years.

Competition being what it is, variations of much of the trick-tech below are offered by more than one maker. But we've been brand-specific because these are the particular systems we've tried and idiot-tested.

Mercedes-Benz Distronic Plus

Remember when the idea of a car that could maintain a set speed with the press of a button was edgy and a bit dangerous? Remember how radical adaptive cruise control was - when your car could also maintain a set distance to the car in front with the help of radar/laser sensors?

Now, some adaptive cruise control systems can not only keep their distance but will also bring your car to a complete stop in traffic. And then accelerate up to your preselected speed again when the way is clear.

By far the best such system is Mercedes-Benz's Distronic Plus, which has been available on the marque's larger models for some time but has just been introduced as an option on the C-class. It's $4600 for a package that also includes some other driver-assistance features.

It's activated by a single tap of a stalk, is faultlessly smooth at speed, and decelerates to a stop seamlessly. When the traffic moves away, you tap the accelerator pedal to let the system know it can reactivate.

BMW head up display

So who wants to feel like a fighter pilot? Head up display was pioneered by BMWin 2003 and it's still the best such system. Important information like speed, navigation instructions and cruise control settings are projected on to the windscreen in front of the steering wheel, so they look like they're floating in front of the car. No need to refocus your eyes to look at the instrument panel. Unless you're wearing polarised sunglasses, in which case the display is invisible. A minor glitch in a brilliant system.

Volvo City Safety

You could argue City Safety is designed for inattentive drivers - but hands up anybody who can claim they're always focused on driving when crawling along in slow traffic. Exactly.

City Safety, unique to Volvo and standard on the XC60 and S/V60, is a radar-based system active up to 30km/h. The rearview mirror-mounted sensor "watches" cars up to 6m ahead and if it looks like you're going to have a nose-to-tail collision, will precharge the brakes and even take over completely if the driver does not act. It can avoid a crash completely at up to 15km/h and will drastically minimise damage at up to 30km/h.

It's also clever enough to recognise what's a car and what's not, so don't test it on a brick wall. The latest version launched on Volvo's 60-series models can even recognise pedestrians.

Ford blind spot information system

Okay, not strictly a Ford system - BLIS was originally developed by Volvo. But kudos to Ford (former owner of Volvo) for getting it into a $52,990 car, the Mondeo Titanium. BLIS uses radar to monitor the blind-spot area behind the car and will warn the driver of the presence of another vehicle via a flashing light in the side mirror.

Volkswagen park assist

You might think that automated parking systems are kind of stupid. You might be right. If you use one by Toyota or BMW, you'll find the process slow, over-complicated and a little bit embarrassing - in the time it takes to set up you could just double-park and run in to get the groceries.

However, if you really must, Volkswagen's park assist was one of the first and is still the best because it's so simple. One touch of the button and the car can identify a space - select reverse and the car does the steering while you operate the throttle and brakes. It's simple and very fast - as fast as you could parallel-park yourself.

Best of all, you can have it on a humble Golf ($2500 as part of a radar/camera package).

Newer park assist technology now offered on Passat and some Audi models can even grid-park - although we haven't tried that yet.