You are suggesting that, accuracy aside, we just blast off an EMP just anywhere. Yes, the electronics in the car will be fried and, if the car requires electronics, it will be stopped along with all the other vehicles and electronic devices in the vicinity, including your vehicle. The damage would just be atrocious. There would be so many accidents on the road because of this not to mention the amount of money required to compensate all the innocent bystanders.
Even if you managed to aim your EMP, which faces the same troubles if not more than the sniper, how would you generate it? Nuclear bomb?
Using an EMP to stop a fleeing car is that sticking your face in cement to stop a runny nose. It would be very effective, but just not plausible.
I’ve seen occasionally described on those “world’s worst driver” shows (I’m not proud) a device that zaps the car from underneath with a powerful electric charge. It’s laid out the same as a spike strip, except instead of rupturing tires and risking loss of vehicle control, it fires a little bolt of lightning (so to speak) into the undercarriage of the passing vehicle, effectively frying its entire electrical system and basically turning it into a big skateboard that coasts safely to a stop. I don’t know if expense or technical complications are preventing their wider use, but I’ve definitely seen them demonstrated. Not what’s being contemplated here (a 2020’s-style death ray from above), but essentially the same idea, made more practical.
A person in the back of a chopper is too unstable. You want a fixed, stabilised gun like the one an Apache, with a proper targetting system. That said, as those who watched Top Gear some weeks ago will recall, a car can give the Apache a good run for its money if the Apache can’t use missiles.
Yes I’m serious. Perhaps I was careless to use EMP instead of a more general term. Ever heard of a HERF Gun?
Aside from collateral damage, none of the problems you imagine are unsurmountable. And even the collateral damage doesn’t have to be to anything more than a $50 part.
Yes they can be aimed. Ever heard of a directional antenna? An EMP is still just an electromagnetic wave.
No, they do not require a nuclear device. Conventional explosions can create EMPs, too, and are actually more suited to directional antennae.
This guy built a HERF gun for little more than the cost of the Microwave Oven Magnetron.
Imagine what one could do with a transmitter klystron!
As for isolating the vehicle and minimizing the effect on other cars/buildings… there are mitigating techniques for that as well: tighter beam, and just waiting for a clear opportunity before firing.