text: Driverless cars have almost every part of the car controlled by a computer. So, what happens if the car's computer lost power because it has been on to long, or it overheats because the computer is working to hard? In all these situations the car would most likely stop functioning correctly , and quite possibly hurt a pasenger. What if an essential part of the car breaks while on the road? The google car has a special piece of equipment called a LIDAR that keeps a constant 3-D model of the area around. If that piece of machinery fails while on the road the driver is required to take control of the car to keep it from driving into any people, buildings, or other cars. In all of the situations above the driver would need to take control of that unique situation, or else fatalities could occur. These are only a couple examples of what could happen if a driverless car malfunctioned while on the road.