Not all recalls have the same level of newsworthiness. Both the Volkswagen and Hyundai recalls were related to internal corruption and potential criminal activ

Not all recalls have the same level of newsworthiness. Both the Volkswagen and Hyundai recalls were related to internal corruption and potential criminal activity making them more noteworthy. That is a failure in the regulatory system while Tesla's recall is the system working as intended. The Fiat recall was related to hacking so it will naturally get more interest on HN. I don't have data on this, but voluntary recalls seem to be much more common for cars than other retail products.