Nope, for me using a phone is a much worse experience.
1) Small screen hard to read with ageing eyes from that distance, or to operate touch controls precisely. This alone is a deal breaker, anything that requires more focus or concentration is A safety hazard and a no go.
2) unsightly charging cables hanging around.
3) no backing camera support. Also a safety hazard.
4) no handsfree support i.e control volume, skip songs without looking or lifting hands from the steering wheel
> 3) no backing camera support. Also a safety hazard.
You wouldn't even want the phone to show the backup camera; you said it's too small for your eyes. The car has to be able to show the backup camera in the console anyway.
> 4) no handsfree support i.e control volume, skip songs without looking or lifting hands from the steering wheel
I have disabled bluetooth in my cars because it's a worse experience than wired CarPlay, but if I had to, I could just go back to it and my cars support controlling the music from the physical car controls (including the ones on the steering wheel), just like when it's connected by CarPlay. This has worked for ~15 years at least.
> Small screen hard to read with ageing eyes from that distance, or to operate touch controls precisely. This alone is a deal breaker, anything that requires more focus or concentration is A safety hazard and a no go.
I could see this being an issue for some eyes. For me though the phone's touch screen is actually far easier to operate due to its location next to the steering wheel/driver's side support column. Rather than hovering my hand in the air at full reach to interact with a central unit, I keep my hand braced against either the wheel or the handle on the column and have full support when interacting with the phone.
> unsightly charging cables hanging around.
Guilty as charged. I did wire the cable to my wireless charger behind the trim in an appealing way, but my new phone doesn't even support wireless charging so I have a dangling wire now.
> no backing camera support.
My vehicle doesn't have a camera, but I've never really needed it. It comes from the time when the rear windows were large enough to clearly see everything going on out the back. This is before regulations shifted to make the rear columns massive, block all your visibility, and force you to use the camera rather than your own sense and intuition. If I had a tiny child I might reconsider.
> no handsfree support i.e control volume, skip songs without looking or lifting hands from the steering wheel
I installed a device (USA Spec BT45-TOY) that allows my phone's bluetooth to connect to the stock head unit with full support for steering wheel controls. All the magic of bluetooth with 0 LCD screens shining at me (so long as my phone screen is off).
1) Small screen hard to read with ageing eyes from that distance, or to operate touch controls precisely. This alone is a deal breaker, anything that requires more focus or concentration is A safety hazard and a no go.
2) unsightly charging cables hanging around.
3) no backing camera support. Also a safety hazard.
4) no handsfree support i.e control volume, skip songs without looking or lifting hands from the steering wheel