(Bloomberg) — A red VW Golf jerks back and forth as it maneuversinto a parking space in the English spa town of Cheltenham. Thehalting efforts resemble those of a new driver, and in a sense theyare — just not from the person sitting at the wheel.

The car itself is navigating into the spot, which it manageswithout a scratch. The man in the driver's seat, who has his handsresting leisurely on his lap except for the occasional gear change,is a mere onlooker in this demonstration of the latestautomated-car technology.

While the idea of robo-cars whisking us off to our destinationsmay sound like science fiction, the technology exists and islargely ready for the real world. What's harder to determine is therisk associated with the emergence of these vehicles.

If automakers effectively take the wheel, that puts them in thefiring line for liability suits stemming from accidents. Thevehicles would also be exposed to threats from hackers who couldhijack cars and potentially control them remotely, turning theminto mules for criminal purposes or even using them as weapons.

“A hacker could redirect a whole bunch of traffic to gridlock acity” or even “kidnap people,” said Wil Rockall, director ofinformation protection at consulting company KPMG in Tonbridge,England. “The risk goes from being one of human error on the partof the driver or road user to being human error on the part of adeveloper.”

Autonomous S-Class

Still, such worst-case scenarios aren't halting efforts to pushthe technology, which is forecast to become an $87 billion marketby 2030, according to Boston-based Lux Research. The Golf'sself-directed parking job in the August presentation by VolkswagenAG is just one example of the trend.

Google Inc. unveiled a cartoonish prototype of a self- drivingcar in May. A Mercedes-Benz S-Class drove itself 100 kilometers (62miles) through real daytime traffic on crowded German roads lastyear, and parent Daimler AG is developing self-driving trucks.

The prospect of cars being controlled by online navigationsystems is troubling to regulators and law enforcers. The U.S.Federal Bureau of Investigation has determined that hackers couldtake over automated vehicles and use them as “lethal weapons,” theGuardian reported in July, citing a study obtained by the Britishnewspaper.

Yet there are benefits as well. The FBI report acknowledged thatpolice could monitor connected cars more easily. In any case,automakers are attuned to the risks.

'Stumbling Block'

“The biggest stumbling block to any of these things is carsecurity and also liability,” said Gavin Ward, a spokesman forBayerische Motoren Werke AG. “Those are the sort of issues that arestill being worked out.” The Munich-based carmaker has testedself-driving technology on the German autobahn.

Volkswagen, based in Wolfsburg, Germany, is also keeping its eyeon the tactics of cyber criminals to keep a step ahead, spokesmanPaul Buckett said at the demonstration in Cheltenham. Googledeclined to make someone available to discuss risks associated withtheir automotive efforts.

To limit hacker risk, autonomous cars will need “much moresecurity” and that requires constant monitoring, said AndrewMiller, chief technical officer at Thatcham Research, whichsupplies data to British vehicle insurers. “As fast as people comeup with software and encryption processes, the criminals come upwith ways around them.”

Aside from worst-case risks like remote carjacking, there's themundane question of who's to blame in an accident when human erroris no longer an issue. That could ease the burden on the driver, asthe responsibility shifts to carmakers.

No Fatigue

Because robotic vehicles don't suffer from daydreaming andfatigue, “you are going to have a lower frequency of incidentsbecause these cars are an awful lot safer,” said Murray Raisbeck, apartner at KPMG's insurance practice. “However, if something doesgo wrong, the severity could be an awful lot greater.”

The change in liability could shift the burden of insuringagainst accidents to carmakers, suppliers and developers, whileconsumers would pay less. That might hit the motor-coveragebusiness, which is worth $200 billion a year in the U.S., accordingto the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

“It is difficult to be precise on what impact driverless carswill have for us, but we know there are going to be issues,” saidAlan Gairns, product manager for home and motor insurance atAllianz SE in the U.K.