The Institution of Engineering and Technology has warned that even though driverless cars are a reality, the fear of hacking puts them years away from appearing on our roads.
The report suggests that automated vehicles will be at least 15 years away from appearing on our roads and even then the IET warns that hacking will still be a major risk.
With automated cars largely using wireless communication methods this would open up a window of opportunity for hackers, criminals and terrorists to gain access to the vehicles and then either steal them or turn them into potential weapons.
Speaking to the Telegraph Hugh Boyes, a cyber security expert at the IET said:
“Sadly we're not that good at writing software today. 98 per cent of applications have series defects."
“If we have the hacker community start to target vehicles in Central London we could imagine a fair amount of chaos on the roads."
While this news may sound morbidly negative, the IET does point out the considerable beneifts that automated vehicles will bring.
The report states that for every 10,000 human errors made today in vehicles just one error would be committed by a computer, potentially saving thousands of lives.