I wonder if a GPS jammer could disable navigation to a location. The car relies on other systems for driving, but I imagine the GPS would still be used for locating the destination. Though in the future there would likely be other systems by which the cars could navigate. This could just lead to more trouble though.

If the car could take you to the police station, then it would probably take you other places in other emergency situations. For example, in this scenario, I wonder if faking a medical emergency to go to the hospital would override a police flag.

Why fear the police? They don't put you in prison, the courts do that. The police still have to operate under certain rules. If they don't follow those rules then they are wasting their efforts. What you would need to fear is a jacked up system behind the police.

This article doesn't have to be about the future. The police already have access to tools to intercept your cell phone conversations. If I were operating outside the law, I would be more worried about cell phone conversations than a taxi dropping me off at the front door of the station (unless I had a warrant for my arrest.)

For criminals, self driving cars would probably be safer than driving yourself assuming you aren't creating an alert by jumping in a car. The police would have less of an excuse to pull you over, potentially leading to a search of the vehicle if you are in a self driving car. I'm sure the police could come up with whatever excuse they like, but you would be less likely to attract attention.

Any why would the police operate like this? I'm sure they would be much more interested in allowing the person to go to the destination while collecting video and audio. It's not what we know which is scary, it's what we don't know.