Anna Salamon presents an idea that an increase in intelligence will dwindle our accident rate toward a vanishing point. She defines accidents as unexpected, unwanted, or undefined properties that are “bundled” with desired properties that are the consequence of some engineering or other effort. We design, engineer, manufacture and operate automobiles in order to obtain a specific set of outcome properties. These desired properties do not include crashes, but it still is possible for a car to crash. Our cars go faster every year, but are increasingly safer. Consider this: while numbers for population, cars, drivers and miles traveled continue to increase, the percentage of fatalities is steadily decreasing.
With an increase in intelligence and the ability to predict, comes a decrease in the unexpected, or at least an increase in the ability to avoid the unexpected. That means fewer accidents and an increased ability to handle accidents that could not be prevented or even that could not be predicted.