We've heard the marketing babble, and pondered the possibilities of a hands-free drive to work, but do those radar-based collision prevention technologies actually work? The British Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre Thatcham seems to think so. BMIRPCT took a long hard look at Volvo City Safety, Mercedes Distronic Plus and Honda CMBS, and decided the technologies will have a major impact on slow speed accidents -- which account for 75% of accidents as it is -- and should prevent more than 125,000 injuries a year in Britain alone, according to this research.

The system is active at speeds of up to 18.7 mph and has a range of up to six meters in front of the car. If a driver fails to activate the brakes before an imminent collision, the City Safety system automatically stops the car, and even steers it out of harms way.