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It sounded like it precomputed the route, steering, drift for the whole course first, then executed it.

If the friction were variable and unknown it would get completely lost.

Which is very common, even in controlled drift events. Over the course of a single run, tires can completely change grip coefficients.

So you got the sense that it was recalculating based on the response it got?

I wasn’t clear on that from the article.

I combed through the article and a previous article linked in it, but I can't find any concrete answer one way or the other. My intuition is that it would have to be recalculating it's inputs as the environmental variables change. They could have modeled in expected tire friction coefficient changes, or perhaps the task is more forgiving of that changing variable than I expected.

One of their stated goals is to drift in tandem with another human driven vehicle though, so they are likely aiming for complete, adaptable autonomy.

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