There is a gizmo on top of the steering column of this all-new Lexus LS 460 that tells you how far car technology has come in recent years. The small plastic box amid acres of wood and leather seems an incongruous addition to a car that will cost £60,000 when it goes on sale in the new year.

What you won’t know is that, as you ponder its purpose, it’s looking right back at you. In that box are six infrared eyes logging the position of your features so it can build up a picture of your mug. It doesn’t matter how tall or short you are or from which ethnic group. It can see you in the pitch black even when you can’t see it and you won’t faze it by donning dark glasses.

And while it’s watching you, so another set of eyes, in the form of radar and cameras, is watching the road. This way the car can not only spot danger approaching from the back or front of the car, it can also tell whether you’re looking out of the side window or are fast asleep at the wheel as you hurtle towards this life-threatening hazard. If it figures that your attention is not where it should be, it will flash lights, bleep at you and nudge the brakes until it decides you’re back in control. And if you don’t snap out of your stupor it won’t just nudge the brakes, it’ll slam them on to save you from yourself.

While some will see this as an unnecessary interference and worry about a car with the ability to exercise such a degree of control over its driver, it’s hard to argue against a system that is only ever active when it’s trying to save your life.

And that’s not all this extraordinary car will do. While self-braking vehicles are not new, systems from Honda and Mercedes require the obstacle to be metallic, which is fine if it’s a car you’re about to wallop but entirely ineffective when a child runs out in front of you. The Lexus, by contrast, sees all, or so its maker claims. It will stiffen the suspension in anticipation of you trying to swerve around the danger and it even has eyes in the back of its head, or the rear bumper to be more precise, permanently scanning for something about to come smashing into the back of you. If it reckons that’s on the cards, it will move your headrest forward and up to minimise whiplash.

In addition to this arsenal of party tricks, the LS 460 is an accomplished luxury express. It’s as quiet as an empty country church, as comfortable as a warm bath. It handles surprisingly well and, when asked, responds to your right foot with alacrity thanks to a 375bhp 4.6 litre engine.

And yet, despite all this, I failed to warm to the LS 460 in the way I have to technically less accomplished luxury cars. And I think that’s because we’re getting to the stage where the standard of technical achievement for such cars is so high anyway that further advancements seem of only marginal worth.

What need is there, for instance, of an eight-speed gearbox if not to cover the engine’s lack of torque low down? How important are the improvements in ride quality when the previous LS already felt as if it possessed the ability to resurface the road? What then starts to matter is not the car’s bald capabilities but the sense of wellbeing it imparts. Technically an Audi A8 is a less accomplished car than this — it lets you feel the bumps in the tarmac and is less able to block out noise from the engine, road and wind — yet it feels more luxurious. Its cabin looks smarter and more special by far; its controls feel of a higher quality and, most important of all, when you wake up on a Monday morning with the knowledge that it’s out there waiting for you, your week has already got off to a good start.

I’ve not spent more than a few hours in the LS 460, but attractive though it is I cannot see it interacting with its driver on that level. I can see owners feeling great respect and admiration for it, but it’s harder to see a car that places so much emphasis on technological sophistication being something you’d warm to.

Look at it, instead, as a device for getting a job done. Supremely well adapted to coping with life on 21st century roads, the LS 460 may well be the most technically accomplished saloon ever created. Call me picky, but these days I’m not sure that’s enough.

THE OPPOSITION

Model Audi A8 4.2 FSI Quattro SE £59,815
For: Fabulous looking inside and out, smooth V8 motor
Against: Ride and handling now some distance from class pace

Model Mercedes-Benz S 500 £69,815
For: It’s the greatest all-round luxury saloon in the world
Against: You’ll pay through the nose for it. Not exactly pretty