NHTSA complaint #11605232

Owner complaint summary

While driving on the highway I got an error alert "Service Electronic Throttle" and my gas pedal stopped working almost immediately. I was fortunate enough to coast to the next exit and pull off in the shoulder. The car would not start. I unplugged the battery and waited 5 minutes. After reconnecting the battery, I was able to drive 4 miles home, and the next day I drove 7 miles to the Alfa dealer. Since I reset the battery in order to start the car, they told me there were no codes visible and they sent me home with the car. I drove for 70 miles until the same issue happened. This time I was on a road with no shoulder but was able to pull off into a parking lot. I tried to reset the battery again to make it home but I was only able to make it about 100 yards down the road and I pulled off into a construction driveway. I reset the battery once last time to make it another 100 yards down the road until I coasted into a parking lot. Each time the gas pedal completely stopped responding and I was left to cruise as far as I could. If the car turns off and won't start again you are not able to put it into neutral and move it to a safe spot. When I brought it to the dealer the second time they gave me an error code of "P008A-00" and replaced the fuel pump. They also told me I should try to always use the same gas station and never drive below a quarter tank of gas. There is a service bulletin for this issue in 2017-2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia's but I have not seen anything yet for 2019. I was very luck in all 4 instances of the gas pedal failing but if it went out while trying to pull across multiple lanes of traffic I could have easily been hit. You can also only make it as far as the car will coast so I could have been stranded in the middle lane on the highway if there was heavier traffic.