[bob1029]

> It's actually pretty scary losing the majority of your braking power when you desperately need it.

Agreed. It's bad both ways. I would say the more dangerous failure mode is the one which results in the most unexpected amount of delta between input and output.

If you are already in the process of trying to stop, there is going to be some finite difference between expectation and reality, even if the braking system does not perform perfectly (or at all). Your brain is already thinking "ok let's find a way to slow this thing down". You might have a few precious milliseconds to go for a shoulder or other external soft-stop opportunity.

If you are inputting zero braking signal and receive a 100% stop force arbitrarily, that is pretty much an infinite level of surprise. Incidentally, this may also provoke any adjacent ABS failure modes.