Smart cars should improve this prediction by reporting hard braking and other evasive maneuvers that indicate "near misses" that wouldn't otherwise show up in accident reporting.
Which is probably good and bad -- municipalities can use the data to improve dangerous roads/intersections, online map providers could use the information to route around dangerous roads. But also insurance companies can use it to set rates "We've analyzed your driving over the past month and based on our predicted danger level, we're going to need to increase your rates 20%
I'm guessing you are against insurance companies charging more for drivers who are statistically likely to be more dangerous?
Car insurance telematics [1] seems largely positive in that it financially discourages dangerous behaviors and it means people who actually drive dangerously (as opposed to people who are simply young) will foot a greater fraction of insurance costs. (Though there are definitely implementation issues and privacy concerns.)
There's a limit to how closely I want insurance companies (or any companies, really) to monitor me. Virtually sitting in the car with me is one of those limits.
Which is probably good and bad -- municipalities can use the data to improve dangerous roads/intersections, online map providers could use the information to route around dangerous roads. But also insurance companies can use it to set rates "We've analyzed your driving over the past month and based on our predicted danger level, we're going to need to increase your rates 20%