Those who support the idea of driverless cars say the computers that run them can avoid the mistakes that people make.

But those have problems as well.

Besides the potential for failures, malfunctions, errors, camera problems in heavy rain, one major concern of critics is: What if the computers of driverless cars are hacked?

There may not be an answer for that yet, but the driverless technology itself continues to evolve.

Autonomous driving, we're told, is the way of the future.

Autonomous cars featured heavily at this year's Paris Motor Show, but how can a computer deal with the randomness, the chaos of Parisian traffic?

We decided to put that to the test.

Our co-pilots today are engineers developing the technology that's already being sold to car makers. And where better to start than at the foot of the Eiffel Tower?

So now cars driving itself? - Yes.

You're not involved at all? - No.

No pedal, no wheel, no nothing? - No, no, no.

I got my hands on my knees.

Which should be a dangerous thing, given the cyclists, scooters, and pedestrians, not to mention the bad drivers who do have their hands on the wheel.

But Beauvau says the car sensors are more efficient than the human brain.

And as you can see, there is a pedestrian here, and we're gonna slow because it's detected.

And then when the pedestrian is off the crossing area, then —

And even if the pedestrian come much faster, the car would know that. It's programmed to stop. - Yes.

The technology is part-programmed, part-learned.

Through its many cameras, sensors, computers, and radars, the car's artificial intelligence allows it to learn as it goes.

It's just always focus on its own task, which is driving me safely from point A to point B.

So that car did something very rude. - Yeah.

It just cut across you and the car felt it. - Yes.

And it didn't even complain. - No.

There was no tooting of villain. - No, ha ha ha.

There will always be an element of risk going there, even for computers.

The zero fault doesn't exist.

What we want to show is that we're able to drive during one billion hours without any problem.

And that's much better than human beings. - Yeah, of course.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about all this is that this is likely to be an evolution rather than a revolution.

Already, all of the sensors that exist on this car and then allow it to drive autonomously exist on the sorts of cars that you would buy today. Ordinary cars.

And so what's likely to happen is that little by little, we will get in the habit of letting go of the steering wheel until one day, all cars, even here in the French capital, drive themselves.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.