Report: Self-driving vehicles still not as safe as human drivers.. yet

Fully autonomous vehicles could be on the road by 2020, and the technology is developing rapidly, although some researchers note that self-driving vehicles aren't as safe as human drivers just yet.

"It's a highly disruptive technology that's coming on a lot faster than people expect," said Barrie Kirk, exezcutive director of the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence group, in a statement to CBC. "Humans, generally, are poor drivers."

However, researcher Steve Shladover, from the Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH) program at the University of California, believes it's only a matter of time before a major accident occurs: "Think about things like mobile phones and laptop computers... they don't run nearly that long without failures... but we're expecting a car to now operate that long without a failure in a very complicated environment?"

The live driving environment is complicated, with vehicles, pedestrians, children and pets, and other dynamic obstacles that could be difficult for computers to navigate. Even so, self-driving vehicle supporters believe autonomous cars will be significantly safer than human drivers.