The unintended accelleration/decelleration problem is a big concern for me.
My CNC machines had a huge red E-stop button that everyone operating them had to instinctively know about. Expensive problems can happen awfully fast. With an automobile, it goes WAY beyond merely expensive.
Regarding decelleration, I would suggest going into some "coast" mode. Let the driver decide whether to hit the brakes or not. Depending on traffic, etc hitting the brakes randomly (and it would seem random to the driver) could cause a huge problem.
For my part, I'm making the resolver output center on 2.5V and range from 0.5V to 4.5V. Anything above/below the range will be an error. The Honeywell throttle position sensors used this method, which I think is very smart. With it, you can easily detect open or short circuits.
Beyond that, I think the brake pedal or the e-brake lever could act as an intuitive override (E-stop button), just in case all the safety logic Paul built into this fails for some reason.
Paul - it's not that I don't trust your work - you're doing a great job with all of this.
The problem is weird unforeseen stuff can happen, and it's bit many automakers already.
- E*clipse