Like said many times:
the idea & solution for central controller & central display was produced by Siemens VDO (their ergonomics department) quite a while ago! And they offered the solution to German car makers. And as you can see all of them have it now.
Some implemented it earlier, some later.
Usually the electronic stuff is either:
a) open solution available to everyone
b) exclusive solution (eg. a partner (car maker) has a right to exclusively use the solution exclusively for a certain period of time).
Eg. Central Command system is an open solution, while some other systems (eg. MB's ABC) have been / were exclusive.