Self-driving cars have long been the pet project of Google, but mainstream automotive companies have started edging their automatic safety and assistance tools towards that end of the scale as well. At CES, Toyota and its subsidiary Lexus recently unveiled the "advanced active safety research vehicle," whose Aperture Science-worthy name belies its somewhat more modest short-term ambitions. Lexus insists it's not meant to replace the driver, acting instead as a co-pilot and a new step in existing safety systems, and we've taken a close look at what kind of hardware that entails. For Lexus' explanation of just what "autonomous" means here, take a quick look back at our coverage from yesterday.