That's why you buy a car with a manual transmission. Those haven't been electronic-ized yet and are unlikely to be as the forces involved in depressing the clutch are substantial and unlikely to go away.
Once the clutch plates are no longer in contact the engine can do whatever it wants but none of that makes it to the wheels. And then you can get the car out of gear to coast, turn the whole car off and then back on.
There's no substitute to having a human being in the loop to execute high-level "executive" functions, especially when things aren't done to the very high standards of aerospace. You know, like cars.
There exist "manual transmission" that lack an operator controlled clutch. DCTs are very much manual transmissions, but many of them rely on a TCM to disengage the clutches.
I do agree that having a hydraulic (or cable)-clutch car eliminates the ECU from a critical path (power to wheels), but there are plenty of electronic-ized manuals.
There are all sorts of advanced DSG / dual-clutched transmissions in many newer cars, but even some older cars like the MR2 and Smart cars have a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrohydraulic_manual_transmi... : quite literally a manual transmission where the clutch has been actuated electronically.
Once the clutch plates are no longer in contact the engine can do whatever it wants but none of that makes it to the wheels. And then you can get the car out of gear to coast, turn the whole car off and then back on.
There's no substitute to having a human being in the loop to execute high-level "executive" functions, especially when things aren't done to the very high standards of aerospace. You know, like cars.