Not especially - although I also feel that they were unfairly villainized because the cars were still WAY cleaner than stuff built the year before the new emissions laws. I'd also note that subsequently just about every other mfger was caught doing variations of the same thing.

Vehicle testing (emissions, especially, but MPG also) are highly synthetic measurements that aren't very representative of real world conditions.

But to come back to the point at hand - a ban on "facial recognition" is so vague that it doesn't actually accomplish anything - the companies will still do it, they'll just call it something else. "Biometrics", "Posture analysis", "Location monitoring".

Historically, government gets tech wrong, and getting it wrong fast just makes the situation worse.