Embodiments provide line-based feature generation for vision-based driver assistance systems and methods. For one embodiment, a feature generator includes a circular buffer and a processor coupled to an image sensor. The circular buffer receives image data from the image sensor and stores N lines at a time of an image frame captured by the image sensor. The N lines of the image frame are less than all of the lines for the image frame. The processor receives the N lines from the circular buffer and stores one or more features generated from the N lines in a memory. Iterative blocks of N lines of image data are processed to complete processing of the full image frame, and multiple frames can be processed. The generated features are analyzed by a vision processor to identify, classify, and track objects for vision-based driver assistance and related vision-based assistance actions.