Yes, execution has been often poor in the past. I guess what I am saying is precisely that it seems to me that the automotive industry decided not to invest to improve technology for digital instrumentation, and simply gave up. Actually, I think that the overall industry has been generally slow in evolving and catching up with new technology. The general low quality in infotainment systems and on board electronics of all sorts - the Empeg is to this day the best in-car head unit I've ever used! - seems to support my impression. I may be ignoring some real technical challenge here, but, I have the impression they needed an newcomer (Tesla) to wake up and start taking IT/digital technology seriously.

Example: yes, I too think computer industry and smartphones pushed the display tech significantly, but, until Tesla, car manufacturers have been really slow in adopting display tech already in the market for years. I have a end-of-2013 Mazda CX-5 with top of the line infotainment system, and the small dashboard display (6", good for a car in 2013) was bad virtually on everything. I ended up replacing it with a cheap Chinese Android-based head unit, which, with all its limits and glitches and bugs, looks like SciFi in comparison. ANY smartphone in 2013 was better than my stock Bose infotainment system. I suspect in 2016 the situation has only minimally improved.

Not to mention shockingly naive poor design of keyless systems, hackable by anyone with some googling and few dollars, or cloud-based services that allowed your car to be hacked and controller remotely.

Honestly, at present, when it comes to in-car electronics - mostly in the area of human interface, but, sadly, not only there, I doubt anyone is in really good shape with the very notable exception of Tesla, a car manufacturer born in 2002.