I'm wondering if part of that is that the companies producing these awful interfaces don't see themselves as 'software' companies, so they put these things in but no one has the time or passion or interest to make it a better experience.

Not saying they'd definitely be good if only some one loved 'em, but judging from the car touch screens I've used I believe no one has tried yet.

Well, analog controls are not very good to control a gps map or browse a music collection.

I find that a round knob with a push-button click, when coupled with a non-touch screen, is far superior to swiping around on a touchscreen to browse a music collection.

Why do we need screens on everything when we have a phone? A mobile computing device.

The last gen Citroen Ami uses the phone. You can check how it looks.