They use a very high temp (boiling point) brake fluid and heat insulators between the caliper pistons and the brake pads. We used phenolic caliper pistons or "buttons" in the center of the aluminum caliper pistons as stand offs to keep the heat from migrating into the pistons and boiling the brake fluid in the caliper. The brake would still work on the bike in the photos IF I would still have brake pedal pressure but once the fluid turns to a gas you can no longer force or push the brake pads against the disc. Carbon pads and discs will still stop even glowing hot as long as you have fluid pressure to push them against a friction surface (disc). 68HemiB's post is a perfect summary of how brakes work But IMO what happened to the car we're talking about the driver riding or using the brakes to control a sticking throttle he boiled the brake fluid and lost all pedal pressure and at that point you are not going to make any friction and stop or slow down at all. Other factors are the quality and age of the brake fluid in the car and if it has been overheated before and if it has then the threshold for failure gets even lower. Bottom line he cooked the brake fluid and lost pedal pressure. "Energy can neither be created or destroyed" And one cannot say that NO heat or thermal energy is generated in a friction brake system even backing out of the driveway, it has to even if it's one degree that's how it works. Kinetic to Thermal. Thought about making water cooled calipers to keep from boiling the brake fluid but I bet someone already thought of that. I know we make cooling fins for them.

Mike

(note the brake pads are glowing hot too and the heat insulator between the brake pad and caliper in not but it still boiled the brake fluid in this case.)