There is such thing as "evading the law" you know. It's not enough that you satisfy the regulation, if you act against the intent of the law in other ways. Or perhaps it's different in the US, but that's what I would expect in most of Europe.
https://www.crunch.co.uk/blog/startup-advice/2015/05/20/tax-...
Since VW has admitted to detecting test conditions, it's now no longer evading the regulations but avoiding it, right?
At the time they submitted their cars for testing, they told the world these cars met the test standards and did not say they had software to detect the test and modify the engine tuning. They only admitted it after they got caught, so at the time of the testing, they were evading the law, not avoiding it.
Avoiding the law would be not submitting their cars for testing.