I totally agree with you, having also had to deal with rental cars with batshit crazy touchscreens that barely functioned, lagged like crazy, and were obviously not fit for the purpose for which they were built.
My last car was a 2006 G35 with no screens as all, and a nice analog clock. I loved that about it so much.
I never understood why manufacturers tried to reinvent the wheel and not just use the phone for all things entertainment and navigation. I would never want GPS in my car, because they all were so horrifically bad.
Until I got the Model 3.
It take less than 1 second, literally two taps in almost exactly the same location on the screen, to activate GPS to my ‘Work’ or ‘Home’ presents. And if I do need to dial in an address it has a full keyboard, full POIs, and autocomplete which is as fast as Google Maps on my iPhone X. Traffic aware navigation which appears to use the same feed as Google Maps (estimates and routes seem to always match). The GPS on Model 3 is a joy to use, actually, truly.
The best part is that it implements very good interpolation when GPS drops out using compass and velocity, so going through tunnels tracks almost perfectly compared to Google Maps on iPhone which gets hopelessly stuck.
The interface is very reminiscent of an iPad, just as quick and responsive, and has a bunch of cool touches.
For example you can drag the media player to be hidden, to be just showing key info, or to nearly full screen, based on the level of interaction you need in it. The drag is a quick flick of the finger and doesn’t require precise targeting at all. It’s amazingly natural to navigate. While driving all the media control you need (volume and skip) is on the steering wheel. You get free Slacker and free LTE and I’ve really enjoyed the streaming music and have actually been introduced to some new artists I didn’t know before.
I never wanted a touchscreen in my car. Full stop. Until now. The fact that it’s all touch with consistent OTA upgrades give me confidence that it has staying power to remain functional, relevant, and looking elegant.
Particularly with the way Tesla designs their cars, I would be surprised if Model 3 wasn’t essentially the same interior design 10 years from now. I know they designed 3 in particular to have as little as possible that might look “dated” in the future.