> Imagine letting a passenger in a car use the e-brake at any time.

Alright, I'm imagining. Seems extremely sensible, especially in an AI-operated vehicle.

Much of the world (the US being an outlier) puts passenger-facing emergency breaks in every carriage of passenger trains.

Buses and trains already have publicly usable e-stops. Hell, English ones even have them on the OUTSIDE of the bus.

Clearly autonomous vehicles need e-stops, like all automated machines.