That's not quite the same. In Tesla hitting the brakes kills power to the motor. In an ICE car this is not the case, and if the engine is running away it can bleed off vacuum and you lose your brake assist. So if someone panics and starts pumping the brake pedal they end up in a runaway acceleration scenario until they remember that neutral exists.
In the real world runaway acceleration cases are extremely rare and always involve a degree of operator error, but they make for exciting headlines so people get the wrong idea about how common they are.
> In an ICE car this is not the case, and if the engine is running away it can bleed off vacuum and you lose your brake assist
In an older car, yes. Current cars in the US are all fly-by-wire throttle, and programmed to close the throttle if you apply the brake. And when the throttle is closed, vacuum is restored, and you will have full brake power. All major automakers started doing this did this after the 2009 Toyota "sudden acceleration" debacle.
"until they remember that neutral exists."
Or they can just turn the ignition off. When I was 16 and took driving school, we did this as an exercise. The instructor just simply reached over and turned the key and I had to walk through starting it again (I can't remember if we pulled over or not). I wonder what would happen to a push button start car if you just pushed it while in motion?
I accidentally hit my Start/Stop button yesterday instead of Park when parking yesterday (very slow speed, buttons are close together). It was quite rough and through my parking break on.
Google tells me that "Keyless ignition-equipped cars moving at higher speeds will generally keep moving even if you accidentally press the push to start button. However, if you hold the push to start button down, you can turn off the engine even when the car's moving at moderate speeds"
