any throttle valve 6 that is present or an actuating signal sg_tc for any exhaust gas turbocharger that is fitted over and above this other actuating signals can also be determined in block b 3 the program for determining the driver torque setpoint is executed in the control device 28 it is preferably started at a time close to when the internal combustion engine is started in the step s 1 fig3 in which any variables are initialized as necessary in step s 2 a check is made as to whether a switchover has been made from an old set of characteristics kf_old to a new set of characteristics kf_new which in each case is used to make an assignment of the pedal position pv to the driver torque setpoint tqi_sp the old set of characteristics kf_old can be one of the sets of characteristics kf 1 kf 4 in the block b 1 the same applies for the new set of characteristics kf_new if the condition in step s 2 is not satisfied then a step s 3 determines the driver torque setpoint for the current computational pass characterized by time tn of the current computation as a function of the driver torque setpoint tqi_old under the old interpretation of the drive pedal in accordance with the old set of characteristics kf_old in step s 4 the program then pauses for a specifiable waiting time t_w before the condition.