I bet these guys had a Eureka moment in the lab: “There’s no steering data changes when you’re on a dynamometer!”
“There’s no steering data changes when you’re on a dynamometer!”
May have been an extension of existing programming.
The anti lock braking system alerts when the rear wheels lock up. These are front wheel drive vehicles. It is possible early programming derated engine output automatically when the anti lock system was activated. The engineers would have to bypass this feature during dynomometer testing, but they would have noticed lower emissions during resting if they didn’t. So...they just enhanced the “safety” features of turning down the engine output in a situation of rear wheel lockup (and running on th dyno).