Technology

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.

None of these “recalls” have required you take the cars in.

My car downloads it and I install whenever is convenient for me.

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.

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.