RDS and FM transmission are old ideas hardly worthy of a patent, but there is something more in this patent that I haven't figured out probably because it's vague from the excerpt alone. Most likely auto makers will have to add a receiving device (maybe IR receiver for remote control) beyond a standard RDS-capable radio.
In any event, this is not really that exciting. Much more exciting is the idea of replicating the entire iPod interface on a car's large-screen display and controlling the iPod from the car's iDrive or similar system, not vice-versa. BMW's iDrive controller has the same degrees of freedom (movements in various directions) as the click wheel. RDS and FM transmission can do the job for most auto makers, but for cars equipped with more advanced computer systems it would be much more exciting to have the iPod wirelessly integrated to those computer systems.
