This is a nice idea if don’t plan to have your car for more than 2 years or to never actually own it.

It will still require stupid touch screens and will not integrate with custom hardware (HUD anyone?). It is subpar experience now, and using multiple screens to show even more "widgets" is strange value prop. The widgets I am interested while driving are not coming from some app. I want these screens to show information related to the car - cameras and parking sensors, cruise/lane control data, tire pressure, etc. Not a meeting reminder or current time in Tokyo.

The 2 main things I look at on my car screen are "now playing" and navigation, both of those come from third party apps and both would be handy to have situated between the dials so I don't have to look off to the side

CarPlay already doing navigation-in-the-instrument-cluster part in my car. It is much worse than built-in navigation integration. It is just a stack of direction arrows. Now Playing works perfectly fine via regular BT over the last 10+ years. Any rental car I had will show it in the instrument cluster.

Interesting, you did not mention speed or gas/charge gauge as the main things to look at. I for one will not trust apple to display my current speed (see mockups shared above). I've seen plenty of cases when CarPlay will pretend that it is working (play music, show message popups) but totally forgets to update navigation position since 10 miles ago.

Given CarPlay history, either very few OEMs will actually adopt this or it's going to take a long time for your favorite car to get it. Sadly, no one wants to give up control to Apple and Google.

“Apple says the first vehicles with support for the next-generation CarPlay experience will be announced in late 2023, with committed automakers including Acura, Audi, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Volvo, and others”

They had similar statements when CarPlay was first announced. It took years for OEMs to support it. Maybe it will be different this time.

This looks amazing, tbh.

Looks stunning, but no thanks. I want analog dials and physical buttons and knobs for features like gauges, air conditioning, and volume.

Yes! Screens and flush buttons are not good UX for a car. One should be able to change volume, air conditioning settings, radio station/song without taking their eyes off the road.