The U.

S government estimates that 94% of deadly car crashes are because of human error and that driverless cars could significantly reduce that.

But what if they're hacked?

We all carry computers in our pockets, and everyday machines like thermostats, refrigerators, cameras and even our cars are connected Online.

Experts call this constant connection the Internet of things.

And just like everything else, it's susceptible to security breaches.

Two big questions that I have.

Could autonomous vehicles be hacked to hurt us?

And how can we be sure that the personal data that we produce in these cars are protected?

The answer's air still not perfectly clear the Internet of things is gonna have enormous benefits that I think we can't even begin to realize the power of computerizing and networking our environment.

But there are risks.

Also, here we are creating an Internet that senses, thinks and acts.

What we know about computers and software is that they have bugs.

They have vulnerabilities.

All computer systems can be hacked, so you could easily imagine these attacks being used against cars to cause the car, computer systems to crash or cars being used as the attack vector.

So as we build autonomous systems that affect the world in a direct physical matter, we risk bad actors doing it.

We risk glitches and errors causing physical harm.

Using cars as weapons is unfortunately already a tactic used around the world.

The good news is that perhaps far into the future, properly functioning autonomous cars won't allow humans to hit people.

It could neutralize this tactic of terrorism.

But if the cars can be controlled remotely or hacked and program to cause harm, it could bring on a whole new set of issues to see what's being done.

To make these systems more secure, I visited a company that actually started out in the video game industry and video now also makes the graphic processing chips that go into driverless cars.

We've developed an artificial, intelligent brain for the car, and how they build those chips will have major impacts on the safety of future driverless cars.

What we're building is a computer first and then the car is built around.

It were essentially building a map of the world in real time based on what we sense we had cameras, ultrasonic sensors, radars, light are, which is a laser scanner and each of those sensors air generating a massive amount of data.

Data collection is crucial for allowing these cars to function.

But like Security, it also raises questions about how the information gathered from our personal lives will be used.

The new technology has theater tension of privacy advocates like Lauren Smith at the Future of Privacy Forum in Washington, D.

C.

A group that explores issues with all sorts of home gadgets like Amazon Echo's Alexa System drones, even smart dolls.

Alexa, are you spying on me?

E only send audio back to Amazon when I hear you say The Wake word and now autonomous cars.

It's important that people start to think about their cars in the same way that they think about their computer or smartphone.

So if you use a technology like this that relies on connectivity that relies on data inputs and outputs, you are creating sort of an information trail, you know, data has good and bad uses.

There's some very powerful reasons to collect data about us in our society and put it together so we could do research.

We could better deliver services.

Smart government is the wave of the future, but the same data can be used for surveillance for control.

I don't really think any government is prepared for the Internet of things and what it's going to dio thes air computers that affect the world in direct physical manner.

And there are risks toe life and property.

Largely Western governments have taken a very hands off view the regulation of the Internet, United States especially, and that works great when it didn't matter when it was data, when it was a spreadsheet, when it was conversation.

But when it's a car, when it's a medical device, when it's an appliance, when it can actually do physical harm, that changes everything.