Exactly; any car UI that requires you to look at anything but the road is really bad UI. This, to me, is a much more legitimate and concrete argument than "it might be distracting."
That was exactly my thought when I saw Tesla for the first time! I love how this car looks and that it's a technological marvel, but big touchscreen requiring you to look somewhere else instead of focusing on the road is a really bad thing. Recently I've started to think why won't car manufacturers create a good multimedia interaface displayed on the windshield. It could sense when you drive faster than some really low threshold and limit amount of UI elements and distractions. When it comes to controlling infotainment systems there IMHO are two reasonable options: first are buttons on the steering wheel, and the second is employing thing like MYO, assuming it works well.
Yeah, this is a place where the auto industry could learn from the console-gaming industry - give the users generalist, reusable physical controls and a HUD.