Companies developing driverless cars say their vehicles could eventually make the roads safer by eliminating risks like drunk driving, road rage, and texting while driving. But current models aren't yet infallible.

According to a report from the Associated Press, four of the nearly 50 self-driving cars currently being tested on California roads and highways have gotten into accidents since September. Three of the accidents involved "souped-up Lexus SUVs" operated by Google and the fourth was an Audi retrofitted with self-driving gear by the parts supplier Delphi Automotive.

Only two of the cars were in self-driving mode at the time of the accidents, the report said. The other two times, a person was in control of the vehicle.

Google and Delphi Automotive did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, but told the AP that the accidents were "minor and their cars were not at fault," according to the report. Indeed, the AP said the self-driving cars just got "dinged," so these don't sound like major crashes.

According to the U.S. Census data released in 2012, there were just over 10.8 million motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. in 2009. In California, crashes resulted in 2,816 deaths in 2012.

The news comes after the California Department of Motor Vehicles in September started issuing permits that allow for testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads in the state. Google quickly signed on, and the Mountain View search giant reportedly has the highest number of self-driving cars on the road.

The testing period requires that all autonomous vehicles have a driver who is capable of stopping the car if something goes awry.

Google first announced its self-driving car project in 2010 with the goal to "make driving safer, more enjoyable and more efficient." Experts say that self-driving cars, with all their various sensors, can take in a 360-degree view of their surroundings — something humans can't do — and have faster reaction times than us mere mortals. Tesla CEO Elon Musk even recently predicted that we're approaching a time when we'll stop allowing human drivers to operate vehicles on public roads at all, because robot cars will be so much safer.

But fully self-driving cars are still years — if not decades — away from hitting the consumer market. Google says it is well on its way to launching self-driving cars within five years while semiconductor firm Freescale is aiming to power fully automated cars, trucks, and buses within the next decade. IHS Automotive, meanwhile, predicts that fully self-driving cars should be shuttling people around by 2035.

Truck drivers might also be able to shift their 18-wheelers into self-driving mode in the future, too. Daimler last week showed off a huge truck with autonomous controls.