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An FBI report has claimed that although driverless cars may help reduce road accidents, they could also pose a threat to public safety.

The report accessed by the Guardian newspaper mentions that autonomous cars could avoid accidents and collisions caused due to distraction or poor judgment, which are high in manual driving and that they will also facilitate police in chasing suspected vehicles or traffic violators.

However, the vehicles could also encourage road rage through high-speed driverless car races. A more serious danger would be the likelihood of the cars being used as ‘lethal weapons’.

The report says: "Autonomy will make mobility more efficient, but will also open up greater possibilities for dual-use applications and ways for a car to be more of a potential lethal weapon that it is today.

"Autonomy will make mobility more efficient, but will also open up greater possibilities for dual-use applications."

"Surveillance will be made easier and more effective and algorithms can control the distance that the patrol car is behind the target to avoid detection or have a patrol car intentionally make opposite turns at intersections, yet successfully meet up at later points with the target."

Google announced in May that it is developing 100 prototypes of a self-driving car that will not have a steering wheel, an accelerator pedal or a brake pedal.

The project seeks to develop a car that operates without human intervention as Google’s software and sensors will manoeuvre the vehicle.

The speed limit of the prototypes is restricted at 25mph.

Image: A prototype of Google’s self-driving car. Photo: courtesy of Google.