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If lack of maintenance is creating an identifiable unsafe situation, the automated system should refuse to operate the vehicle at full capacity.

(all the potential objections to that policy are answered by pointing out that the operator of the vehicle has a responsibility to other occupants of the road.)

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What if (full) use of the car is required? Sometimes things break (or rather, a threshold is crossed), but it won't become known to the car and thus the owner until the car is needed. A wife entering labor, for example.

If someone needs high availability, they should adjust their maintenance intervals as appropriate to ensure it. If something literally breaks during the trip, call an ambulance.

That the above is more complicated than ignoring the trade off created by lax maintenance shouldn't become a problem for the pedestrians along their route to the hospital.

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