[jbott]

"Real time" in a mechanical system is pretty generous compared to electrical systems. Changes are in the timescale of 1 to 100 hz compared to the kHz (or even MHz) switching speeds of many electrical systems. Once you switch away from the large rotating mass of an engine (+ drivetrain), you get pretty much instantaneous torque response on an electric motor for free.

I'd say it's more interesting that they were able to figure out the delta between driver intent and physical response without adding any sensors. Having that much flexibility in the firmware of multiple control units (probably collaborating between several vendors) was likely a more complex challenge.