The first time I heard pedal confusion, I mistakenly confused it with sudden unintended acceleration and if I’ve made that mistake, I’m sure others have to.

Sudden unintended acceleration occurs when the car, suddenly accelerates and you as the driver did not intend for that acceleration.

Pedal confusion, occurs when you depress one pedal, believing it is another pedal, so you press the brake believing it’s the clutch or the accelerator believing it’s the brake.

Both do not need to be present, they can occur on their own.

So keeping it simple (which suits me), you can press the wrong pedal and not accelerate (i.e. you press the brake etc) and you can also have a sudden unintended acceleration without depressing any pedal (i.e. your car gains an external source of fuel etc).

In answer to the original question, sudden unintended acceleration is not the same as pedal confusion and both can exist in their own right.

An enquiry I do get a lot of, are instances where drivers have been charged by the Police with either causing death by dangerous driving or causing serious injury through dangerous driving when they have either suffered a sudden unintended acceleration or they have made a mistake and confused the pedals up.



In those instances, I have been able to prepare a Court compliant report setting out what sudden unintended acceleration and pedal confusion are and instances where they occur. Driven Forensics often bring perspective to proceedings to help Courts understand how and why both occur.