@Nomore_lockout You never have to worry about a sensor being broken – unless the onboard diagnostics tells you it is broken. Every sensor on the car is continuously compared with other sensors and rationality checks are run dozens if not hundreds of times per second to verify the output signal is correct. If an error or degraded performance is suspected it will be flagged and the software will begin to use other sensors for input until it can verify the original sensor is working or not.
For example: Imagine a 3 dimension a map of engine RPM, throttle position, and manifold absolute pressure. That main map is called a speed – density map and is used for fuel control. Of course there are minor adjustments to it, oxygen sensor, adaptive memory etc but the basic idea is still speed density. Your car also has an air flow sensor that can be used for fuel control.
For a given engine rpm and throttle position you can always expect to see a certain manifold absolute pressure, MAP, within a certain range. If it is out of range, the other sensors are interrogated and their output is used to calculate expected MAP. The vehicle might check the MAP sensor for a few driving cycles to see if it has drifted and can be corrected or it might decide to ignore it. If it does ignore it a check engine code will be displayed.but you will still be able to drive normally.
The air temperature sensor has similar rationality checks. It uses the temperature of the car when it was shut off, the temperature at start up, time since start up, the coolant temperature corrected for the driving load since start up, air density calculation, and other temperature sensors located around the car. All systems have built in redundancy to keep you on the road and driving even if there is a failure. In fact some systems are double redundant to make sure nothing goes wrong.
The car’s electronic control unit does not look for one answer before making a correction.
It looks at many inputs from different sources and then acts.
That sounds a bit like asking a question on Fluther.