I own a 2021 Mercedes, and completely agree about the software+phone integration. It's 2024, why do I have to plug my phone in? And why is the user interface

I own a 2021 Mercedes, and completely agree about the software+phone integration. It's 2024, why do I have to plug my phone in? And why is the user interface such an absolute cluster**? In fact one of Jeremy Clarkson's (Top Gear, BBC era) running jokes was to ask MB's voice control to do things for him and it never, ever got it right (subject to editing of course). It's still true today. The #1 thing you should be doing in a car is looking at the road. Yet the MB computer and screen demand your attention. And mine doesn't have a touch screen so you're forced to use their controls. In a Mercedes there's at least 3 ways of controlling the central screen, a big dial in centre console, a touch pad in the centre console, and a touch-joystick on the steering wheel. If you're using your phone to navigate and switch to the car radio (there's a physical button for that) or something native to the car, to go back you have to then press the home button (physical), fiddle with the dial or joystick and go 'up' to select Apple Car Play, then spin the wheel or fiddle with the touch pad to re-select the app or display layout, and you absolutely have to look at the screen whilst doing it to get back to Waze or Google Maps. Going from MB 'native' back to 'Your Music App' on your phone is even worse. It's a complete UI disaster. My wife's Ford is half the price, and twice as good as far as the computer and UI are concerned. Frankly I'm astonished that there aren't more car accidents now by people being distracted by their in-car computers and complete lack of good old fashioned manual push-buttons on the dashboard.