Not necessarily very well; my cars' mass airflow sensor went out a few months back... the performance was all over the place and sudden engine stalls were frequent. You could kill the engine just by accelerating quickly when it was cold.

... and that was a single sensor out.

It helps that car engines don't really _need_ sensors to function. Cars existed before electronic sensors. A mars lander actually needs to know when to deploy parachutes.

If the lander cannot function without an altimeter, and there is only one altimeter with no backup plan, then you can plan to lose the lander.

This is not a new idea. Airplanes cannot fly without instruments, and all the instruments have backups and alternate means. Everything deemed "flight critical" has a backup alternative.

You'll find that fuel injectors don't work well without input from the MAF and O2 sensor(s).

True of modern EFI, but older mechanical fuel injectors did not have O2 sensors.

Some cars do this.

My friend's Honda literally stopped combustion when his battery died while driving (no, I have no idea how, but that was the diagnosis).

In contrast, I've limped my Miata along on alternator-only when the battery wouldn't hold a charge. Note: feathering the gas at a stop with brakes and clutch depressed to keep your spark from dying is an "interesting" experience.

At a stop pull the tranny out of gear and activate the parking brake.

More fun is driving a vehicle with no clutch: stalling at every stop and starting the motor in first gear, and shifting without clutching. I had to do that in my '83 280ZX in its last days.