Just kick on the clutch pedal and the power transmission is broken.

As long as the clutch linkage doesn't break :-)

This happened to my dad while waiting at for a light at an intersection. Transmission in first, foot down on clutch: suddenly car leaps into intersection. This was long ago on a Volkswagen bus.

The drive by wire which is terrifying is the power steering. Traditionally it's hydraulic, but more cars are using electric. I sure hope that an electrical component failure can not lead to full turning force.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/electric-vs-hydraulic-s...

shutting off the car, setting it to neutral, etc... do the same thing. bad drivers will be bad.

> shutting off the car, setting it to neutral

Both of these are no fail-safe measures these days, as both ignition and auto transmissions are done entirely in software.

I'm not aware of any passenger car with an electronically controlled clutch. The driver in question finally resorted to pulling the handbrake, which locked up the wheels, so she lost control of the car. Flooring the clutch pedal OTOH, if she'd had one, would have saved her life.