I've done a lot of HMI applications over the years. Great for displaying information in a control room. Even in a control room though, important stuff is still done by hardwired buttons. They take much less thought in critical situations. Press catches fire? Mash the big red button! Easy peasy.
In a car, there isn't much in the HMI that's critical, but it is time sensitive. HMIs always take more interpretation, so more time fiddling, less concentrating on the road. Voice recognition is probably the best, depending on how the menus are arranged.