I have, and I find it abhorrent.

In some lists the scrolling wraps around. In some it doesn't. Sometimes it's a click on an item. Sometimes it's a shift to the side.

And the systems I've seen (in BMW's DriveNow) have the worst feature of them all. The main screen where you have your selection of things to do (Nav, Car options, Media, Radio etc.) is not a fixed list, it's an MRU list.

So, if let's say radio is the very last item on the right side of the main screen, and you chose it, the next time you go back to the main screen, it will be the first on the left side of the screen. Now use Nav, go back. Now Nav is the first item and radio is the second item.

It is my long standing theory that people who design car interfaces have never seen a car in their entire life much less have driven one.

I've heard great things about BMW's system, only because you can bind the hotkeys to any screen/feature you want. But there's only like 8 and they all look the same.

True, but they stay at the exact same location, so it‘s easy to memorize.

(And just hovering/slightly touching the key will show the current setting in the display.)

Is this a newer thing? I drive a 2009 model and this is surely a fixed list there. I agree, an MRU would drive me crazy.

It could be a newer thing or their DriveNow interface on top.