An automotive internal combustion engine combusts an air/fuel mixture to generate a drive torque. An engine control unit (ECU) determines a torque request to output a fuel request signal indicative of an amount of the fuel to inject into a cylinder of the engine. The ECU includes neural network controller installed with a neural network to generate a fuel setpoint signal based on the torque request and to define a combustion model of the engine. The neural network generates a start of injection (SOI) signal indicating a start time at which to inject the fuel based a crankshaft angle. The ECU further outputs the fuel request signal based on the fuel setpoint and the SOI. A fuel injector injects the fuel into the cylinder based on the fuel request signal to generate the drive torque indicated by the torque request.