Level One is a vehicle with at least one automated driver assistance system; Level Two is more than one of the systems working in tandem. It can be confusing to figure out who offers what when you’re car shopping, so I have spent the past few months testing autonomous tech to offer a guide. What I found was that even some affordable cars now have various degrees of autonomy that will help keep you safe.

With Honda Sensing buyers can get tech that includes automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist and blind-spot warning. Some of those features are in Subaru’s EyeSight system and Toyota Safety Sense, but blind-spot warning is separate.

While more automakers are making this kind of safety gear standard, do your homework. The tech can be standard equipment, optional or a little of both.

For example, Ford’s Co-Pilot 360 is standard on the 2020 Explorer XLT and includes automatic braking, lane-keeping assist and blind-spot warning. But to get adaptive cruise control, XLT buyers need to spend $795 for Ford’s Assist+ version, and that’s after adding a mandatory $5,140 option package.

There is no question that these systems keep us safer. Even when optional, active electronic safety features can pay for themselves quickly. A Honda executive told me it supplied far fewer replacement front fascias for modern CR-Vs equipped with automatic braking. And Subaru said last year that likely pedestrian-related insurance claims fell by 41 percent in vehicles with the second-generation EyeSight system, which was introduced for 2015.