Recalling the hardware is a drastically more difficult request to impose on customers and financially/logistically for the car maker.
That's a disporportate response just to highlight importance of an OTA update.
And the distinction matters to consumers because...?
A component is faulty. It needs to be fixed. Whether or not you have to drive to a dealership, if it's OTA, if someone at a dealership needs to plug a specialized device to your car's OBD port, or the car is unfixable and needs to be melted to slag and you get a new one doesn't really matter. There's an issue, it is a safety issue, and it needs to be fixed.
How efficient the process can be it's another matter entirely. That's up to the manufacturers.
As a car owner, those scenarios are drastically different to me. I have a hard time imagining anyone saying "It doesn't really matter to me if my car receives an OTA update or if I need to drive 2 hours to a dealership or if my car is melted to slag."
A recall should unambiguously mean that some action from the owner is required to resolve the issue (e.g. taking it to a dealer to get a software update installed.)
If no action is required (other than caution / not using the product feature), we should use some other term such as "safety advisory" to avoid ambiguity around critical safety information.
Should, perhaps. But recall has a meaning with legal implications, so it matters. A recall requires the fix status to be tracked and reported for example, whereas a random OTA updated does not.
Because in one I have to book a time with a dealer and take half a day off of work and in the other I have to do... nothing and it will just fix itself.
you can, in fact, 'recall' software. this is semantically accurate description of what is happening.
What do you think “FSD recall” or “software recall” means
Tesla released software that can kill people. It must do a FSD recall
This is not the same as Apple doing an OS update, not mandated by a regulatory body because it could kill someone
I was hit by a driver not paying attention. I had to get two surgeries, was not allowed to stand for 9 months, spent another year just rehabbing my nervous system and learning to walk. I still can’t jump or run
Tesla released software it’s marketing as “full self driving” that is not even Level 2 Alpha! Full Self Driving implies a level 5 system.
Tesla’s software has disclaimers like “may not behave as expected in sunlight”. Even its AutoPilot has these disclaimers.
It constantly claims FSD makes drivers safer. Yet it’s non transparent with its data, the data & comparisons it does release is completely misleading to the point of fraud, comparing apples to oranges. The cars it’s released on public roads to untrained drivers runs through intersections (it’s all over YouTube) and fails all kinds of basic driving tests. Tesla accepts ZERO responsibility if someone is killed while FSD is activated… that’s how little confidence it has in its own product
This is a product that can maim and kill humans, ruin people’s entire lives… and your response is incoherent mumbling about adjectives ?
Any person who is majorly confused by what a “software recall” is… or can’t figure out what this FSD recall means for them, shouldn’t be beta testing a 2-ton machine on public roads. They shouldn’t be driving period.
With a Recall in the normal sense, isn't there a record that the car has been updated? How is this done if the car is kept fully available to the user?