Some really persistent pirates and rebel ships, or bounty hunter ships (and such), should ask YOU to surrender to THEM after they take a certain amount of hull damage, instead of the norm. This can be either laughably hilarious or a real practical option to consider.
For example, think about if you're fighting a slug interceptor pirate ship with a basic laser. After reducing them to a point where they should surrender, instead they say "Hah, you had enough yet scumbag?! You've got some fight in you, I'll give you that. I'm feeling generous today, how about you hand over some of your scrap and we'll call it a draw?"
This is obviously as much of a joke as accepting AI surrender, but maybe it could have some good outcomes too, like getting a crew member or a map of the sector, or other options instead of just "conceding" to them. 
Another time when you might actually want to consider this would be in fights where the enemy won't usually let you surrender at the start. Such as the bounty hunter event or possibly some events when fighting rebels. You usually take a lot of damage from those events so maybe if you could reduce their hull they would give you the option of surrendering. Obviously this isn't as appealing as killing them after you've gotten the upper hand, but heh not every option has to be a good one.
Lastly, (this shouldn't be a racial ability, but) there should be an event where you can fake surrender in order to get the upper hand. You could, for example, sneak in some ion bombs when transferring over your tribute and bring down one of the enemy's systems.
Anyway, just some random thoughts, it's late where I am now and I'm tired and rambling...
