Honda isn't a tire or windshield company either, it does not prevent them from ordering high quality tires or windshields...

Actually, a lot of the Japanese car companies are built on vertically integrated companies where a parent (usually a bank) company owns both the primary company (Honda) and a set of complementary companies that provide things like Windshields or Tires. It's called a Keiretsu.

Then maybe they should keiretsu their way to software because whether they're a software company or not they make shitty software. And either they can make good software or they can buy good software, but if they make shitty software they're a software company, just a shitty software company.

I've worked at several companies where at least one manager/exec says "We are not a software company, we're a ___(their core product/service)___ company".

If an organization creates and utilizes software as part of their ongoing concern...is at some level, a software company.

Indeed. Yahoo pretending it wasn't a software company is what lead to a billion user accounts getting compromised in the largest data breach in history.

Most manufacturers are only responsible for powertrain components, contracting and assembly.

They're not experts in much, but contracting for quality parts IS something they're supposed to be experts in.

It should be as simple as stipulating a requirement of "sub 100ms response time to all user input".