They're solving a problem they introduced themselves eh?

Voice command: shout at car to make it cooler. Car doesn't understand. Shout at car to turn off radio so your voice command is clearer. Car doesn't understand. Take eyes off road to turn off the damn radio with the touch screen. Crash!

The button interfaces actually work 100% of the time. Voice command... lol...

It's fine because you can just turn on the Autopilot while you adjust the radio and everything will be fine.

Tesla created an interface that can only be used while driving by handing control over to software that is unable to recognize when a vehicle in front of you is at a dead stop.

And everything is just fine?

I think the parent comment was intended to be facetious.

I find talking to a machine uncomfortable and embarrassing, regardless of whether they work. I doubt I'm the only one who feels this way. Why can't I just turn a dial?

Give me a voice interface that works 100% of the time (not 99% of the time, not even 99.9% of the time) and I'm sold. Otherwise I'll continue to prefer a knob that "just works".