Just because a manufacturer applies a fix OTA doesn’t make it not a recall. Recall is just a term. Regulators issue the recall. How the manufacturer performs the fix can vary.
That’s all it means.
Whether or not you have to drive to a specific building to get it done is not and never has been a requirement of the recall process. That’s just how automakers have done it, mostly out of lack of OTA and unwillingness to send techs to invidual peoples houses.
Again there’s no way for the regulator to know how the recall should be fixed. It makes no sense to give it a different name just to appease the semantics of not actually driving the car to a shop to fix the problem.
It’s an implied inconvenience (taking the car in) that doesn’t actually exist (people aren’t actually taking their cars in), vs accurately conveying a public safety message (the recall indicated the car needs to be fixed). OTA updates aren’t infallible. It’s safer to be over cautious.
Manufacturers can initiate recalls, they aren't always, or mostly, issues found by the NHTSA. They are required to report them to the NHTSA who track and monitor them. I wouldn't say they are necessarily "critical" either. Here is the list of recalls for a 2005 Toyota Camry, for example.
https://www.autosafety.org/vehicle-safety-check/2005-toyota-...
As an owner with Auto Pilot I don't know how to feel. It's most likely just going to make the product more annoying / less useful rather than inherently safer.
I mean, you can't install radar through an OTA, so... :(
Just so happens that the latter can't be fixed via software, because it's not a software-based safety failure.
The former is fixable via software update, because it is a software-based safety failure.
Both, however, are safety failures. Both need to be fixed. Both situations incurred regulatory requirements to notify customers and provide a timely fix at no cost to affected customers, whether within or without the vehicle's warranty.
In short: both are recalls, and recall means the same thing in both cases: notify, fix, or face regulatory consequences.
To the car owner who has to deal with a “recall”, it functionally does.
One type of a recall requires you to drive to a dealership/service center and leave your car there while the issue is being resolved. The other type requires you to do nothing aside from just waiting for the OTA update to install.
And that’s because most people have no idea that recalls resolved trough OTA are even a thing. Makes sense to me that a lot of people wouldn’t be aware, since OTA updates aren’t entirely common in cars yet.
As for “why”, since “it is still a recall, the only difference is how it is addressed”? Because to an actual person dealing with a recall, it makes a significant difference whether they gotta drive somewhere and leave their car there to get fixed vs. their car autoupdating OTA overnight while the car is parked safely at home.
With Tesla no action on your end is required. The car will download the fix and apply it automatically.