> the danger was small relative to the normal everyday danger of driving with humans The danger of a car having its transmission crap out on the freeway is non

> the danger was small relative to the normal everyday danger of driving with humans The danger of a car having its transmission crap out on the freeway is non-zero, yes. On the other hand, they explicitly cut a vehicle's transmission on the freeway. The danger for the people in the immediate area of this vehicle was increased because the situation (a cut transmission) went from "maybe it will happen" to "it is definitely happening." At that point, whether or not an accident happened depended entirely on the skill and attention of the drivers around this vehicle something completely out of the control of the researchers.