What they're saying here with this "recall" is that people's actions and behavior aren't being sufficiently monitored and controlled by automated systems, with the usual argument of "it's for their own protection".

You make an excellent point. Tesla cars all now come with an internal camera focused on the driver. I'm not sure how far it's been implemented so far, but the intention of that camera is to continually monitor the driver while they are using auto-pilot to make sure they are paying attention to the road, to what the car is doing, etc. There's various technologies that can track attention from video input of a human face, mostly on where the eyes are focused and how they are scanning etc. That would work much better than monitoring pressure on the wheel but it's a massive trade-off in privacy that I personally would be very reluctant to make without cast-iron guarantees on non-storage of the video, non-transmission and protection from subpoena, etc. (Satisfactorily strong guarantees and protections I think we are unlikely to get.) But I also do think that video monitoring of drivers is where things are heading. I can see the alternative argument too - that driving on public roads is not actually a right, it's a privilege (I agree on this principle) and so if having cars with auto-pliot and monitoring of the driver properly monitoring the autopilot leads to safer driving (I think it does already and will continue to improve into the future) then that is where we will go and the 'right' to drive a car completely manually and with nothing to monitor your attention in the car except passing police cars will increasingly be limited and eventually removed. Actually, in Australia we already have external cameras set up over roads which issue fines against ppl using their phones while driving, etc.