What kinds of cars you driving that are making the process that distracting.
I have three giant knobs inches away from my gear lever to control the climate. Climate control status is on a screen just below line of sight to the road.
I'm moving my hand a few inches and generally not even needing to look at anything to get feedback (I can set the fan speed by ear...), and if I do I can do it without taking my eyes off of the road.
I'm controlling the climate control for my comfort, not to hit arbitrary numbers. If I make a quick stop and spend a few minutes out in 110 degree heat, I wanna get in and have ice cold air blasting in my face until I'm comfortable. I don't care if the car is already a chilly 66f inside. If it's -40 outside, I want it to blow heat directly on my feet when I get in until my toes warm up even if the car is already warm. Hell, sometimes if it's too warm in there and my toes are frozen I'll drive around with the heat blasting and a window cracked to keep it comfortable.
I shouldn't need to sacrifice my comfort so the manufacturers can continue building shitty and dangerous UIs for basic vehicle functions.
Anything you do outside of driving your car is then technically distracting you from driving even if only minorly. Sure, it's not massively distracting to reach over and turn some knobs. But is is more distracting than never having to make an adjustment at all.
So we should probably focus on making things people need to do in their car as quick and intuitive as possible to limit the distraction.
We put radio controls on the steering wheel to make it easier and safer to do things like adjust the volume. We don't just tell people "set your volume before you get moving and let the speed dependent volume control take over from there".
I have three giant knobs inches away from my gear lever to control the climate. Climate control status is on a screen just below line of sight to the road.
I'm moving my hand a few inches and generally not even needing to look at anything to get feedback (I can set the fan speed by ear...), and if I do I can do it without taking my eyes off of the road.
I'm controlling the climate control for my comfort, not to hit arbitrary numbers. If I make a quick stop and spend a few minutes out in 110 degree heat, I wanna get in and have ice cold air blasting in my face until I'm comfortable. I don't care if the car is already a chilly 66f inside. If it's -40 outside, I want it to blow heat directly on my feet when I get in until my toes warm up even if the car is already warm. Hell, sometimes if it's too warm in there and my toes are frozen I'll drive around with the heat blasting and a window cracked to keep it comfortable.
I shouldn't need to sacrifice my comfort so the manufacturers can continue building shitty and dangerous UIs for basic vehicle functions.