They should have said it's not just about touch. There are two components to not having to take your eyes off the road: first, you need to be able to find the controls. And second, you need to know exactly what the knob that you find will do when you change it.
A dynamic tactile touch screen solves the problem of finding the controls, but if the knob that you find could be the volume or the temperature depending on the mode the UI is in, you're still likely to look down to check which one it is.
Edit: And even some clever solution like giving different shapes to different modes doesn't help a ton, because that still uses more brain cycles and time than "reach for where I know the volume knob is and turn it left". You'd have to reach out and feel the control, and if it's the wrong one then reach for the mode switcher and then find the correct control. That's distracting regardless of whether the eyes can stay on the road, and you're very likely to pull your eyes down instinctively to help with that complicated process.
A dynamic tactile touch screen solves the problem of finding the controls, but if the knob that you find could be the volume or the temperature depending on the mode the UI is in, you're still likely to look down to check which one it is.
Edit: And even some clever solution like giving different shapes to different modes doesn't help a ton, because that still uses more brain cycles and time than "reach for where I know the volume knob is and turn it left". You'd have to reach out and feel the control, and if it's the wrong one then reach for the mode switcher and then find the correct control. That's distracting regardless of whether the eyes can stay on the road, and you're very likely to pull your eyes down instinctively to help with that complicated process.