A restricted FBI report, uncovered by The Guardian, reveals thatdriverless cars will impact how law enforcement officers andsuspects operate their vehicles.

In the unclassified document, these “lethal weapons” can beprogrammed to use as getaway vehicles while suspects fire guns attheir pursuers, for example. Criminals could override safetyfeatures to ignore traffic lights and speed limits, and terroristscould load up these cars with bombs and program them to drive todetonate at specific locations.

On the other hand, autonomous vehicles could be “game-changing”for police officers. Surveillance will be “made more effective andeasier, with less of a chance that a patrol car will lose sight ofa target vehicle,” the report claims. Driverless cars may beprogrammed to remain a certain distance behind targets to avoiddetection.

The U.K. just passed legislation allowingdriverless cars on public roads starting in 2015. Stateside,California, Nevada and Florida allow such vehicles to be driven fortesting on public roads. Google's driverless cars have traveledmore than 300,000 miles in California.

Google told Auto Express that it is too earlyto reveal safety and security measures in its car.

This presumably reflects fears that the concerns citied in thatFBI report may in fact be justified.