updated from its previous value following the third ignition cycle which was not long enough to be valid a fourth and subsequent ignition cycles will only update the compensating torque value 84 following an ignition cycle that meets the minimum duration requirement of one horizontal unit of the plot 80 as will be recognized by those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art based on the teachings herein any suitable minimum duration requirement and or minimum distance requirement may be chosen in alternate embodiments in order to meet design criteria as shown in fig4 a comparative plot of uncompensated and compensated hand wheel torques versus time for the exemplary vehicular test of fig3 is indicated generally by the reference numeral 90 an exemplary uncompensated hand wheel torque signal trace 92 is shown to include an offset or pull of approximately one newton meter u201c nm u201d in a clockwise direction in comparison an exemplary compensated hand wheel torque signal trace 94 is shown to include an offset or pull that begins at approximately one newton meter in a clockwise direction but is gradually reduced in correspondence with the compensating torque following each successive valid ignition cycle in operation power steering assist is provided by the torque assist function 56 and the summing function 54 where the assist torque is provided as a function of the torque applied at the hand wheel the pull compensation scheme is effected by the robust steering pull compensator 52 in combination with the summing function 58 a combination of vehicle signals received at the condition processing block 62 are used to determine if the vehicle is being driven in a substantially straight path this information is used in turn to conditionally.