General Motors (GM) has launched a new disclosure program intended to catch bugs before malicious hackers find them.

As reported by Ars Technica, the car maker has teamed up with bug bounty coordinator HackerOne for a new program that will rely on a community of white hat hackers to notify it of potential security problems.

GM's chief cybersecurity officer, Jeff Massimilla, told Ars Technica that his company places "high value" on security researchers. More importantly, he said that the program launch ensures that security researchers can hack his company's car without fear of being sued by GM.

According to the GM site, anyone with good intentions may attempt to hack GM vehicles without facing legal action, so long as they do not violate the law, harm the company or its customers, or live in certain countries, including Iran, North Korea, and Sudan, among other rules. Once a security vulnerability is discovered, the hackers may not disclose their findings to the public until GM has fixed the issue.

The stakes are high for GM and all car makers. With cars increasingly becoming connected, the risk of them being hacked by malicious hackers is growing. Finding security flaws before they can be exploited is critical, as it could quite literally mean the difference between life and death.

Last year, hackers took over a Jeep and crashed it into a ditch as a proof-of-concept. That prompted Fiat Chrysler to recall 1.4 million U.S. vehicles, and was a major topic of conversation at last year's Black Hat conference.

At Def Con, meanwhile, Tesla announced a bug bounty program, too.

For now, GM's offering is a relationship between hackers and the company and is not a full-fledged bug bounty program, Ars Technica said. However, Massimilla said that could change in the future.