Have a 2001 Rodeo LS, 6 cyl Auto. The wife says it randomly revs/speeds up while driving. She has to hit the breaks and wait for the rpms to come down until she steps on the gas. Any ideas

Probably need to check the accelerator pedal sensor. You have drive-by-wire which uses a sensor on the pedal and a stepper motor on the throttle body to control the throttle.

It could be that and I would check to see if the intake manifold gasket has a crack and is causing the RPMs to jump.

My 99 Rodeo had a similar issue.

it died, and would not start up again.

It eventually was determined that my Idle Air Control Valve (IACV) was the culprit.

That fixed everything.

Oddly enough my truck would occasionally made a hard change between gears 2 and 3 when driving that was also alleviated with the IACV change.

my mechanic could not determine why that was, but it fixed it.