...which can be mitigated with a different high-tech solution: accurate sensors. If some critical component is near imminent failure, the car shouldn't allow it

...which can be mitigated with a different high-tech solution: accurate sensors. If some critical component is near imminent failure, the car shouldn't allow itself to be included in a high-velocity train. But I fear we have a trust problem there: we wouldn't trust the industry to be accurate in their sensor assessments, since the prevailing assumption (I'm looking at you, HP) is that these sensors are used to maximize revenue instead reliability.