Updating UI and potentially getting used to new layouts is really something that will improve road safety..

People, this isn't kindergarten or high school. Traffic is serious thing, not a playground

And it is nearly impossible to reliably tap a button on a touchscreen in a moving vehicle on even smooth roads (at least by me).

One technique is to dock some of your fingers against known reference points such as the corner of the screen, then you can stabilize the finger pressing the button and rely partially on muscle memory to locate the target button.

Yeah, this is the way. Still much less comfortable than a physical button, but not a great issue for power users either.

or best of both worlds and have physical soft keys down the side like oscilloscopes and other test equipment have.

Yes, that's the downside.

Why don't we have any physical "dynamic" controls yet? A "3D" touchscreen? Something like a ferrofluid [0] layer underneath a flexible display. It seems both technically possible, and a way for us to have our cake & eat it.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrofluid#/media/File%3AFerro...

Or something like the new Stream Deck? https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck-plus

Actual buttons/dials that can be customised to what you want them to be?

You still have to look at the screen because you can just feel it with your fingers without looking at it.