So are they recalling, or releasing a software fix?
It's technically a recall, but it's fixed with an OTA update. But the fact that any "defect" that can be fixed with an OTA update is called a "recall" is confusing to consumers and contributes to media sensationalism.
There absolutely needs to be a process overseen by regulators for car manufacturers to address software-based defects, but the name would benefit from being changed to reflect that it can be done without physically recalling the vehicle to the dealer.
Its crazy that Tesla has been doing OTA for 10+ years and today many cars are released that are not capable of being upgraded.
And even those few cars that do support OTA only support it for a very limited amount of system. Often they still need to go to the shops because lots of software lives on chips and sub-components that can't be upgraded.
OTA updates carry a perverse set of incentives. Look at the gaming industry. They went from putting out rock solid games because of necessity (the reality of publishing physical cartridges and CD-ROMs without network updates) to the absolute dogshit of No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk 2077. Gamers have effectively become an extension of QA to the point that some game devs simply stop doing QA at all. Which we are seeing clearly with the "beta" version of self-driving software.
To make matters worse, firmware devs are on the lower totem pole of the developer hierarchy. They live more on the cost center side than the profit center side (think airbag control vs. the guy that did the whoopee cushion sounds). The quality of firmware is already incredibly poor across the range of consumer devices. OTA incentivizes corporations to release software earlier than they currently do knowing that they can always fix it later if necessary.
I do share your concern, but I still likely prefer it to that to software that can never be updated at all.
Would it be sensationalism if the same recall happened to cars not capable of the OTA update?
Because I think there should be media "sensationalism" about these types of issues, regardless of whether they can be fixed with physical or OTA repairs.
> But the fact that any "defect" that can be fixed with an OTA update is called a "recall" is confusing to consumers
What is confusing about this to you?
> contributes to media sensationalism
Why do you think this recall is more sensationalistic than many of the other recalls issued recently? Automotive recalls often address serious issues with cars. "Fix this or you could die" is a common enough theme when, you know, if you don't fix it you could die.
> but the name would benefit from being changed to reflect that it can be done without physically recalling the vehicle to the dealer.
Why? Information related to how, when, and where the recall can be addressed is contained in the text of the recall notice, same as it ever was.