Fristly.... an Audi 5000 couldn't accelerate suddenly even if it wanted too. Have you ever driven one? But in all seriousness that was just a case of the gas and brake being too close together and people slamming on the wrong pedal. It only happened on automatic cars, even though manual trans cars have the same engine, engine management, and the same pedal cluster (w/ the extra pedal for the clutch, of course). I have a feeling this whole Toyota floor mat fiasco is the same thing. People too numb in the head to realize their floor mat has shifted, reach down, and fix it.

Now, I am surprised Toyota doesn't have a failsafe system on their drive by wire cars where when the brake is pressed it kills the throttle. VW / Audi have had this for a long time (all TDIs have this feature... press both at once and the engine will fail safe to 1200 rpm. Same thing happens if a problem with the go pedal sensor is detected...).

-J