Although the two arch rivals firmly believe in distinctly different lighting technologies – BMW favours laser tech, Mercedes a comprehensive LED evolution – they plan to introduce almost simultaneously a broad selection of virtually identical driver assistance systems. Among them are about half a dozen partly or fully automatic parking aids including remote-control manoeuvring in confined spaces, predicative driving governed by sat-nav information and car-to-car communication, a scalable choice of touchscreen interaction and gesture control, the collection of real-time infrastructure information with the help of specialist partners, improved voice control, traffic light recognition, lane changing and overtaking assist, crossroads monitoring with steering and brake intervention, a so-called autobahn assistant which can be left alone at speeds of up to 80mph and the integration of augmented reality features in the extended head-up display. Pause for breath…