IN THIS FEATURE A lesson from Asimov A helping hand, not a babysitter Quick thinker Don't try this around town Allowing you to focus on what matters

When a slow-moving car did suddenly cut into my lane (forced, as usual, by a truck changing lane without warning), the ACC reacted rapidly and decisively. It won't go as far as slamming on the anchors to avoid an accident, but it will apply some braking force and emit a loud beep/flashing light to prompt you to take action. Besides, Honda is about to launch a gadget designed to do exactly that in its forthcoming Legend model.

Clever as the cruise control system is, it plays second fiddle to the lane keep assist in terms of wow factor. A C-MOS camera (identical to the one in your mobile phone - a big factor in their relative affordability) is mounted at the top of the windscreen, just above the internal rear-view mirror. This scans the road ahead in a 40-degree radius, picking up the dotted white lines used to divide lane boundaries on motorways and dual carriageways. The computer recognises that you're locked into a particular lane, monitors its angle of curvature and uses factors such as yaw and vehicle speed to calculate what steering input is required.

Adaptive cruise control can operate from as slow as 45mph to as fast as 112mph

The steering system is fully electric, identical in design to that found on the Accord 2.0 Economy model. So all the LKAS need do is piggyback the electric motor that already provides the steering assistance and tell it to apply torque in a particular direction. To all intents and purposes, it steers itself. But this is where rule number three, the one about promoting negligence in the driver, comes in.

The car will only provide 80 per cent of the steering torque needed to keep the car in lane - the remaining 20 per cent has to be supplied by you. This is Honda's get-out-of-jail-free card. If LKAS detects that your hands aren't on the wheel, or are simply resting there, it will emit a couple of warning beeps - verbal slaps on the wrist - while continuing to steer. Then, after a period of 6 to 15 seconds, it'll disengage completely.