The issue comes in that historically recalls require you to take your car in for service… hence the name. With OTA updates, the issues are often fixed before the consumer even knows there is an issue and the “recall” effectively just becomes communication that there was a problem.

These communications definitely need to continue happening and should remain mandatory by law, but calling them the same thing that requires a trip to the mechanic or dealership to replace parts specifically being broadcast to discredit the technology.

People that aren’t informaed about the difference end up believing these issues will prevent their car from working or reduce reliability when they are simple software patches that happen without the need for additional resources.