I wouldn't be so quick to do that. A potentially defective self-driving vehicle is a more serious matter since it could affect many cars and will likely attract

I wouldn't be so quick to do that. A potentially defective self-driving vehicle is a more serious matter since it could affect many cars and will likely attract much more scrutiny and further investigation… which, in this scenario, would quickly reveal that the vehicle was under manual control at the time of the incident. Now, you have a traffic ticket and a criminal obstruction of justice charge.