Gary, I think it's reasonable to assume, that if we are talking about something that's mechanical, then eventually it will wear out, break or malfunction at some point in time. As far as I know, they haven't created a perpetual motion machine yet.
I watched the 60 minute TV show, and I thought they made it quite clear that they intentionaly made the car accelerate by tampering with the transmission first, just to prove a point on camera.
I'm no mechanic, but I think I remember reading that Audi was having a vacuum problem with the cruise control on some 5000 and 4000 models during that era. Don't quote me, because it's been so long ago, but that stuck with me.
After seeing the 60 minutes show, I was completely convinced all the unintensional acceleration law suits were due to driver error (mistaking the gas pedal for the brake). My wife and I discussed it at length, and I assured her there was no way the engine could overcome the brakes, and the chances of the brakes failing at precisely the same time the engine takes off were impossible to calculate.
I think the basis for the law suits was the brakes failed at the same time the engine accelerated, because every person was absolutely sure they had their foot pressed firmly on the brake when the car crashed into something.
Well I was walking around the West Palm Beach Florida dealer auction when I took a shortcut across the driveway where cars get checked into the Auction. No sooner than I stepped off the driveway, I hear a noise of a car blasting out of the check in area behind me and to my right, and within seconds go flying behind me heading towards the doors of one of the auction blocks.
Finally the driver got the car to stop, (as the motor was still racing) when several auction employees got to the drivers door and reached in and turned the ignition off.
They helped the driver out of the car, (he was noticably shaken) and walked him over to a bench to sit down. As a crowd gathered around him to hear his version of what happened, I'm thinking to myself, another person mistook the gas pedal for the brake, and continued on my way looking for cars to buy, and counting my blessings he missed me by about 10 feet.
About a half hour later I wind up back at the auction block, and the driver of the run-away Audi is still sitting on the bench (by himself now) drinking a bottled water, so I just had to go over and ask him what happened.
He told me, that one of the first things they tell the drivers at the auction is to always make sure they have their foot firmly on the brake when they put the cars in gear. He said he put the car in gear, but when he moved his foot over to the gas pedal, the very moment he touched the pedal, it went straight to the floor and the car lunged forward. It took him a couple seconds to get his feet back on the brake and get the car stopped (even though the motor was still racing).
That's when it hit me, because of the drivers "reaction" time, the car was able to cover a more than enough distance to cause a great deal of damage, and I don't doubt most everybody in the law suit had their foot firmly on the brake when the damage was done.
Unfortunately, because the jurys were asked to reach a verdict thinking the brakes failed the same time the car accelerated at the same moment, nobody could find Audi guilty because the odds of those two things happening at the same time were simply too great.
I went to a pay phone to try and get in touch with my Wife (since she was going to court that day for Grand jury selection) to tell her what had happened, but I couldn't get a hold of her.
Later that evening, I talked to her, and she said she was dismissed from jury duty because she had a preconceived opinion on the case, and I told her I was wrong, about the Audi.
The case she would have been on, was the one where the Preachers Wife ran her child down when they opened the garage door.
That's why I say Audi got away with murder.
Sorry for the long post.