We'll never know, unless the pedal was being pressed hard enough to bend it out of shape. Maybe it is an additional reason to make the system fail safe - assume people will press the wrong pedal and then sue.
The weird thing is we should be able to know! I recall at one point one of the incidents was investigated, and they said that under hard braking at high speeds, particularly sustained hard braking, certain chemical changes happen in the surface of the brake pad due to the temps. They said they found no evidence of those chemical signs.
I thought cars were still generally like that. The ABS can step in and take over, but without pro-active behavior from the ABS you have a direct hydraulic connection. I didn't think ABS was being called upon as involved here.
Brakes are computer-controlled in many cars these days, such as the Prius. The computer chooses between engaging magnetic brakes or the hydraulic system or routing force directly from the pedal to the brakes.
Seems like for software-driven cars, a small 15-minute diagnostics log would be a good idea. A black-box without audio recording, to avoid privacy implications.
