That's not a bug, that's intentional, and saves lives.
> However it doesn't tell you this, it just doesn't show bluetooth options in the menu anywhere. So I spent hours going through every menu item
Greyed out menu item = This is where it is on the UI, but it's not allowed at present.
No menu item = maybe it's somewhere else?
If only there were some way that someone besides the driver could manipulate the in car system.
My Chevrolet handles this well, using the passenger seat occupancy sensor. If someone is sitting in a passenger seat, it gives the option "I am the passenger" to allow access to normally blocked-while-moving screens.
And the behavior the parent described is just annoying. The device has the capability to know if the car is in motion or not. Permanently locking out the function until the car is turned off and on is dumb.
I honestly don't think it's getting any better. At best, it's just getting different - but maybe worse as manufacturers try to add more "smart" features.
Was a passenger in a <1 year old BMW 5 series for about a week this year for a roadtrip. There were so many stupid behaviours with the software that we effectively gave up using it for anything except bluetooth music. Trying to use the built in GPS navigation was awful.
Also a passenger in a new SUV style vehicle for two weeks last year, I forget what brand. It too had utterly bizarre behaviours that it wouldn't explain anywhere, and it took a variety of experimentation to figure out. For instance, Bluetooth pairing is disabled once the car is in put into gear, and is not re-enabled until you turn the car off and turn it back on again. However it doesn't tell you this, it just doesn't show bluetooth options in the menu anywhere. So I spent hours going through every menu item (as a passenger, mind) over a few days until I finally figured it out.
In every case, the number of either unlabelled or poorly labelled buttons is overwhelming.