I’m very surprised that there isn’t legislation requiring a way to stop the car if it does run away. (Although it’s quite possible that’s what the police used once they got in the car, and the user missed it in the panic)
Kinda like how you should know how to stall engine runaway on a diesel.
Some cars have adaptive cruise control, and they use sat nav data to locate speed limits. He’s basically been on cruise control and didn’t know how to cancel it.
Edit - there was a malfunction, but the cruise control got locked and for some reason there’s no way to force it off.
And if you’re going along, then change direction, you’ll lose speed.
Honestly, it’s a pretty good job by the police. They worked out a way to slow it down cleanly, and went for it.
Cruise control does not force the car to stay at the requested speed if the driver is telling it to slow down (nor prevent it speeding up if the driver deems it necessary), that would be ridiculously dangerous. It just makes it a little easier to cruise at a constant speed.
It was a brand new car. Faulty off the production line.