> You could design in a soft-fail mode where it continues in limited mode
> until fixed, or it could just stop until it is repaired.

Volvo did that with their ECU, and have resulted in some near death 
situations on motorways when it failed and went into 'limp mode' while 
barreling down the outside lane - more than once in the UK. Situation has 
been well covered by the BBC program 'Watchdog'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/index.shtml and 
click the drop down box for "Volvos electronic throttle module". 

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