Talk radio has about a minute and a half of news once an hour. I prefer a little more depth than that, and can get it streaming or with podcasts.
Traffic info is usually on 24/7 on a certain station as well.
Not where I live, and I've never heard such a thing.
Or, you just open Google maps on your phone and it shows you all the traffic.
Isn't that part of the "all that crap"?
And for music, there are plenty of radio stations playing music that you can tune into.
No. There aren't. There are plenty of radio stations playing commercials with occasional breaks for bad music. None of them plays podcasts, audiobooks, or lectures, all of which are plentiful for free online.
Or, if you must listen to your own stuff, just about every radio has an 1/8" input that you can plug your phone into and play music off of it.
So I can plug one cable into the headphone jack and another cable into the charger, instead of one cable for both, and control the phone from its small screen rather than a larger screen on the dash. Yup. Much simpler.
Why does your car have to be completely connected and have all this extra stuff that costs more?
It doesn't have to. It also doesn't have to have air conditioning, power windows, a stereo, or remote door locks. I didn't realize that we were under some sort of monastic oath of poverty here.