Can i damage my car by riding around with a broken condenser?

On most newer vehicles the system will engage the compressor (on clutched compressors) when they first start regardless of whether the system has refrigerant in it or not for a second or two before polling the pressure sensor(s) Not as big a deal as on clutchless aka variable displacement compressors but still unnecessary wear and tear on the internals of the compressor.

Clutchless compressors don’t have clutches.. they are always spinning internally. A solenoid receives a pulse width modulated signal that changes the angle of the swash plate to increase and decrease the travel of the pistons thereby increasing or decreasing the amount of refrigerant that is pumped. The minimum angle of the swash plate is between 5-2 percent depending on the manufacturer and design specs. The bcm looks at the pressure sensors, ambient air temperature sensor, the evaporator temperature sensor, the passenger comfort sensor, the engine rpms and the sunload sensor to determine and adjust the displacement of the compressor. Since the minimum displacement at the best is 2% you can kill the compressor by driving across town to get the system charged. A major issue nowadays with this type of system is bodyshops that don’t have R1234yf charging capability and drive the vehicles to a different location to charge the system after replacing the condenser. The insurance refuses to cover the replacement saying it must be a preexisting condition when in reality it was caused by the shop doing the repair. Off the top of my head.