Here's the deal. Mercedes debuted their Distronic radar-based technology as an option on S- and CLK-Class models on July 19. Lexus came to market a scant 90 days later, on October 12, with a laser-based system (and therein lies the rub) called Dynamic Laser Cruise Control.

So Mercedes was first, right? Well, uh, not exactly. You see, Lexus claims to be the first laser-based system on the market, while the Mercedes system uses older radar circuitry.

Uh...OK.

So which system do we talk about first? When confronted with such a journalistic quandary, we here at Edmunds.com employ a very systematic approach. Eeny, meenie, miney....

Let's start with Mercedes, since they came to market first.

Before we do that, though, one quick matter to dispense with. According to officials at both companies, neither system will cause a radar detector to "false." The reason? The frequencies used are a completely different bandwidth than those employed in commercial radar detectors.