Simply because that's how the laws are worded. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issues a recall when there's something to be fixed, doesn't matter how it's actually done.
Tesla is recalling 2.2 million of its vehicles on US roads because the font size of the warning lights on its display is too small, according to federal safety regulators.
First paragraph. I tried to save you from reading the pointless article, but maybe you should consider reading it.
Thanks (and thanks for the pointless article warning), but that's why people are confused by the headline, calling it a warning light is misleading when talking (historically) about a car.
Do they need to be driven anywhere for the fix or is it like an automatic update?
Someone mentioned in another thread that this is still technically a recall, but I didn't understand why.
I felt like calling it a recall might make people distrust future news about issues (or a bigger more traditional "send the car back for physical part swap" recall). Maybe a different term is needed?
You don't need to take it anywhere. The car will download it using its own antenna and then prompt you to schedule the update the next time you get in the car.
It's just an automatic software update, like what happens regularly when Musk decides he wants to add new fart noises or whatever, so users just have to accept the update when it pops on their screen.
It's still officially called a recall because it's something the government asked them to fix, but yeah, it's super misleading to call it that.
So, recalls (voluntary or mandated) are handled the way they are for the purposes of protecting the public and regulating the industry. The reason for this is that it affects the safety of the people using the product. As a result, even if it's not a physical recall of a part or what have you, owners have to be notified and there's a system apparatus in place to do that for car manufacturers. When air bags were turning themselves into shrapnel grenades, they sent out a letter explaining etc and urging that people get their vehicle serviced to correct it. With OTA's you may not even live in a place where your vehicle gets good cell service and as a result, may not get the ota right away. Say you bought the vehicle for the track or as a show car? Maybe it sits in a big metal container some of the time or all of the time when it's not in use. It would be good for the owner to know that a recall had been issued and an OTA is available.