Coming in late, but I have an idea about "What else can it be?"
It lets them compress the development timeline. With a potentiometer you need to figure out where it's going to go, how to install it, how to replace it, etc.
With a digital screen, the hardware design is "screen goes here", and most of the hardware issues are moved to the screen manufacturer, while the presentation layer can be changed whenever, and even updated after the car is sold.
This also means less testing is needed, since any major oops can be done with a software patch, which is cheaper than a hardware fix.
It lets them compress the development timeline. With a potentiometer you need to figure out where it's going to go, how to install it, how to replace it, etc.
With a digital screen, the hardware design is "screen goes here", and most of the hardware issues are moved to the screen manufacturer, while the presentation layer can be changed whenever, and even updated after the car is sold.
This also means less testing is needed, since any major oops can be done with a software patch, which is cheaper than a hardware fix.