Under the protections of the fifth amendment, and a ten year old can’t be tried as an adult, I’ll just say those Chevy starters are rugged.
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Neighbor’s 92 F150 went into a lake with the engine running, he was leaning out of the cab while backing down the launch ramp and fell out, The good news is they had a newer truck to bring the boat and trailer home, the never live this down part is he had to call the wife to bring the other truck. Maybe some day his wife will let him live it down, when they were telling the story a week afterwards she had the biggest grin on her face.
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That was good, to have a dead battery on top of all of this would probably ruin his day.
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So, in effect, the Artificial Intelligence that is built into an autonomous vehicle is as brain-dead as the OP’s friend apparently is.
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Bingo!
Autonomous cars need a variety of sensors to recognize the environment. I’d think a vision system with artificial intelligence designed to recognize water like we do (well…SOME of us…).
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The car is likely totaled so a dead battery is probably the least of the problems. I figured if it wasn’t totaled, it would be best to have electronics disconnected with the car being in the water and all.
Someone told me in Illinois a car is automatically considered a total loss if water gets above the rockers. This car is registered and insured in Illinois. Both he and his family hope it isn’t totaled but I don’t think I would want to keep a car like this even if it could be repaired. So far I haven’t heard from him about the car just yet.
The electrical parts outside the passenger compartment have sealed connectors because they expect water. So generally are OK
Those inside the car are not expecting water so they are not sealed. The pins get corroded, the wire wicks water inside the insulation, the circuit board connections corrode and you create a TON of electrical gremlins that plague the car forever. The airbags may not work when needed or deploy randomly. Bad, bad stuff. Time to scrap the car as flood damaged. Salvage yards can still sell engine, suspension and body parts, though.
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A $12,000 car parked in a river with $25,000 in damage, that might be considered a total loss.
Some states don’t allow the title status of flood damaged vehicles to change from “salvage” to “rebuilt”, so there is little chance of retaining that car.
Just to be off topic, little boat after big rain. Stepped into the boat to bail it and too close the the rear and the motor went under. So there I am loosening the 1973 7 horse johnson, put it up on the dock, turned it upside down, then fogging oil in the cylanders. All worked out fine as it did when neice did not know it was a 2 cycle and ran it with straight gas.
As I kid we had a similar (sort of) portable 2-cycle fishing boat motor. Never been fond of fishing, so wasn’t overly interested in the boat motor. The off-road motorcycle motors, totally different story! … lol …
Lifting that motor out of the water & onto the dock must have been a bit of a challenge. I presume your niece running your boat’s outboard motor without oil in the gasoline damaged engine. Beyond repair? One advantage of 2 -cycle engines, no oil in the crank-case so they will run upside down provided gas delivery method still works. Seems like a pressurized fuel delivery system on a 2-stroke motor would work in outer space, inside the spaceship where there’s plenty of oxygen.
Usually there is a chain on the motor that you attach to the boat. After pulling it out of the water, you might have to row to shore but at least you can salvage the motor. Oh yeah always make sure you have a set of oars too.
Water always shoes as blue though on my navigation system. Even at night it still shows blue. Avoid the blue.
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I seem to recall a chain tying motor to boat, definitely seems a good idea. The gasoline container sat on the floor of the boat, motor higher I think, wonder how the gasoline got up the the motor level? I didn’t like much of anything to do with fishing, waking up at 5 am is for the birds, why do I have to accommodate the fishes’ schedule? And thought small fishing boats pretty dangerous, especially the way some of the fishermen treat the anchors. Some just dropped the anchors. and hope there’s enough rope. I think our boat motor was made by Evinrude Mercury rather than Johnson.
My solution to all this, I’d hire on as day labor at the rent-a-boat place, and clean the boats as they came in, make a few dollars while everyone else went fishing … lol …
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My family had several brands of outboard engines back in the '50s, '60s, and '70s: Scott Atwater, Johnson, Mercury, Sea King, and our weirdest one was a Homelite 4-cycle, a huge monster…
The Homelite was a holdover from WWII surplus, it had a Crosley Engine in it that the Navy used in their PT-boats as an Auxiliary Power Unit and I think it was also use on the B-17 bomber…
I am pretty sure all had a fuel pump of some kind, some had a single fuel tube from the tank to the engine and some had two fuel lines (intake and a return), all have a fuel bulb that you squeezed several time to prime the engine…
I grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Our home was a cabin on the Schroon River. We fished a lot… Had to… When I was 5, I had my own 12’ skiff with a 10 HP Scott Atwater Outboard. I was taught to always have oars, not a paddle (for this skiff anyway…), I also carried rope, a chain with a lock, Shear Pins, Cotter Pins, and pliers (to replace the Propeller shear pins when I broke one, which I did regularly…). The Rope is always useful, the chain and lock was when I went to town (Schroon Lake Village) to lock the boat to the town dock. One time a group of kids thought it would be funny to untie all the boats and shove them out onto the lake… Luckily, my boat was not that far off shore and I swam to it and then helped to bring the other boats back…
When I was about 10-years old, I got “safety conscious…” I bought a flotation seat cushion (to sit upon…) L 
L…
The engine was chained to a bracket on the transom but only to ensure it never fell in the water, however, the engine’s mounting bracket used levers that you screwed down to secure the engine. The ends of the levers had holes in them, large enough to run an old style, long shackle lock through, and this prevented the engine from being easily stolen…
Even after I bought my first car, a '54 Dodge Meadowbrook, I did not lose interest in my little skiff…
Did you notice how I brought that back to cars? L 
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Yeah we had a Scott Atwater first, then a mercury. That Atwater was really fussy. Dad always had cotter keys taped to the handle. Hit a few weeds, some nasty words, then hanging over the back to put a new cotter in the prop. I always worried he’d fall in. Getting towed in to shore would be humiliating so even better to row.
My poor bil found himself stranded out in the middle of the lake on his wedding day. Time they got towed in he was burned to a crisp. Made it though. Yeah, gas, cotter keys, oars, rope, and these days a cell phone. Boy Scout training.
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No problem actually.
All we have left is a padlock on the screw down with no key. Put it on after the 63 got stolen in 73 and connot find the key. Boat was in 6’ of water at the time, still attached to the 52 crestliner so a chain would not have mattered as the boat filled up with water and sunk when I stepped in.
He clearly got all the floating out of his vacation that he could.
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Did his insurance replace car?
Not sure yet… The car was paid for but had full coverage.