Jun 4, 2017, 4:41am ET

Self-driving cars could fight crime

Intel\'s CEO predicts autonomous cars could double as security cameras.

Companies investing in autonomous technology argue it can save lives by reducing traffic accidents. Now, Intel has detailed how self-driving cars can help fight crime.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich predicts autonomous cars can double as security cameras.

"I always say that the cars are going to be out there looking, so the next time an Amber alert comes up and they're looking for a license plate, the cars should be able to find that license plate quite rapidly," he told CNBC on the sidelines of the Code Conference in California.

A self-driving car's on-board camera could also be used to record crimes such as robberies and homicides. And, the footage can help determine who is at fault in an accident.

Getting cars to take over for Scruff McGruff and take a bite out of crime will require special programming, and it could mean giving authorities access to motorists' dashboards. This raises obvious privacy concerns, but Krzanich believes they can be easily dealt with.

"We'll have to put limitations on it. We'll have to encrypt that data and make sure I can't tell that it's John's [car] necessarily," he explained. He added that the amount of social good that can come from using cars as watchdogs far outweighs the privacy concerns.

While Intel isn't developing a car from scratch, it provides software and hardware for autonomous technology. Many of the driver-less prototypes roaming the planet's roads day in, day out wear an "Intel Inside" sticker.