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So we've done it. We made it to the Self-Driving Utopia. All those ridiculous steering-wheeled cars have been thrown into the Grand Canyon to rust. And finally, the autonomous cars can connect to one big network so everything can run smoothly, finally. Right? RIGHT?

Arindam Banerjee/iStock

Of course not.

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It turns out all of the benefits are also equally huge downsides in the hands of bad guys. Reports have warned that terrorists could use this new technology by filling cars with explosives, then having them drive to a destination with no one inside. And the FBI has already studied how criminals could become more dangerous once they have the ability to shoot at police during car chases without having to watch the road.

And any time you make something computerized or put it on a network, you are opening it up to hacking. Think tanks are already worried about what could happen if hackers took over cars while people were inside them. The best-case scenario is that hackers take control safely but demand money to give it back -- what's called "ransomware attacks." More concerning would be taking over cars and using them to kidnap the occupants, or turning them into deadly weapons. Or what if they managed to take over the whole system and brought entire cities, or even countries, to a halt?

Jason Henry, New York Times

God help us, WHAT IF WE HAVE TO WALK SOMEWHERE?

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But that would probably take some Swordfish-level hacking abilities, right? And since cars won't run on a network for decades, we're at least all safe from this until then, right? Nope! One security company found that you can "hack" a driverless car's systems using ... a laser pointer.

Maybe walking isn't so bad after all.

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