My wife's has driven a Yaris for 10+ years which has everything on center console. You get used to it within minutes of driving it. Obviously it is perfectly legal
B. Fahrzeuge
III. Bau- und Betriebsvorschriften
§57 Geschwindigkeitsmeßgerät und Wegstreckenzähler
(1) Kraftfahrzeuge müssen mit einem im unmittelbaren Sichtfeld des
Fahrzeugführers liegenden Geschwindigkeitsmeßgerät ausgerüstet sein.
Translated: "the speedometer has to be in the immediate field of vision of the driver".
It's somewhat murky.
Last time that I drove a Yaris, and that was a few years back, there was a Head Up Display which put a few things against the windscreen, directly in front of the driver.
Presumably an exception is made because the car (mostly?) knows the speed limit and alerts if you exceed? I'm making s wild guess here.
Maybe it's actually less distracting than having instrumentation in front of you? I'd like to hire on for a few days when the opportunity arises.