When I first moved to the US I had this sudden fear that I was going to be unable to drive a US manual car because I figured that since the steering wheel was on the opposite side of the car, that the pedals would have been reversed.
Thank goodness they are exactly the same, but I do wonder how that piece of standardization came about.
Gradually!
Some classic Jaguars had the pedals switched - including the famous one in the Inspector Morse TV series which led to a few accidents on set.
Porsche also made some race cars with the accelerator on the left to make it quicker to do 'Le Mans starts' - where the driver must run to the car and start it.
Didn't they used to jump in, either over the side door or through a window, both feet would reach the footwell at about the same time; arguably from the angle of attack the right foot might be first to the pedals. I suspect it's more to do with gearbox placement or similar.
Thank goodness they are exactly the same, but I do wonder how that piece of standardization came about.