Pagemakers
Active Member
100% agree with every single comment you make. The wipers are lousy beyond belief.
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Auto Wipers are awful
- Thread starter DanAndTheBeard
- Start date
100% agree with every single comment you make. The wipers are lousy beyond belief.
The wipers on my S aren't too bad - only occassionally do they annoy me. But you're all spoiled if you don't come from the era of keeping a cloth to wipe the condensation off (pre car heater days) and tying a string through the windows to work the wipers manually
But the real truth is that these cars are full of hype and built as cheaply as they can be. Price is no longer any guarantee of quality and it's a specialist market at that price point. Once EV's become the only option then market forces/competition will create a whole line up of sophisticated £16K cars for the masses.
But the real truth is that these cars are full of hype and built as cheaply as they can be. Price is no longer any guarantee of quality and it's a specialist market at that price point. Once EV's become the only option then market forces/competition will create a whole line up of sophisticated £16K cars for the masses.
DarkNightP3D
Member
Your S still has a real rain sensor AFAIK.The wipers on my S aren't too bad - only occassionally do they annoy me. But you're all spoiled if you don't come from the era of keeping a cloth to wipe the condensation off (pre car heater days) and tying a string through the windows to work the wipers manually
But the real truth is that these cars are full of hype and built as cheaply as they can be. Price is no longer any guarantee of quality and it's a specialist market at that price point. Once EV's become the only option then market forces/competition will create a whole line up of sophisticated £16K cars for the masses.
DarkNightP3D
Member
I don't know why they would have taken off the rain sensor when it actually worked and the camera based system does not...
Anyway, the earlier S/X cars had real rain sensors and working auto wipers. So does every other car, from lowly Honda Accords to Rolls-Royce Phantoms. I think the auto industry as a whole has realized that the lowly rain sensor is a vital part in a vehicle. Tesla on the other hand seems to have thought that they could get by without one and that their loyal customers will just overlook the glaring defect. I really like my car, but there are several things that have started to annoy me as the premise that things will improve with time has not become reality. I honestly believe my auto wipers are far worse now than they were 18 months ago. I also do not notice any improvements with AP, still do not have FSD (And likely never will with the current sensors on the cars), and here in the US Tesla has continued to grow rapidly but they have invested very little in their service centers and parts supply chain. I think my recent experience with both of the Model Ys we received in December having fairly major issues within a few weeks has just made me even more dissatisfied.
Anything to save a few pennies. Sell hype, not function.
To be fair he's doing a better job then Moller's flying cars did...
Cnixon
Member
Yesterday I put RainX on the front windscreen. The auto wipers have been flat out - completely unable to set the correct wipe frequency. I believe it is due to smearing fooling the camera. It is easy to see why everyone seems to report various amounts of success with auto mode. It is probably down to wiper blade condition, brand of screen wash or RainX even wax shampoo may be to blame.
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The think the reason that the auto wipers don't work very well is because they are based on the perceived weather conditions outside as observed by the cameras, not the amount of water that's actually on the glass (the cameras cant see the windscreen!).
As a result it just sets the wiper speed based on how hard it thinks it's currently raining, which is nowhere near as good as most other cars which just use a simple cheap rain sensor to that detects the amount of water droplets on the windscreen.
It's something that tesla really need to look at doing differently in my opinion because it really doesnt work well at all, although it is much better than to used to be!
As a result it just sets the wiper speed based on how hard it thinks it's currently raining, which is nowhere near as good as most other cars which just use a simple cheap rain sensor to that detects the amount of water droplets on the windscreen.
It's something that tesla really need to look at doing differently in my opinion because it really doesnt work well at all, although it is much better than to used to be!
I think I must have different rain to everyone else as I don't really have any issue with the auto wipers.
Likewise. I usually have them on manual and lightly hit the button if there is just a smattering. Or give it a good tweek if I need the washers. Voice control luckily works for other degrees of deluge.
Only applies to English, French and Spanish rain so far. YMMV elsewhere.
I put rainx on a while ago and it ruined it. Made a greasy smear on the windscreen that took weeks to get rid off. Fairy liquid was the bes thing. I do not advise it. However, on the glass roof it works well!
Yachtsman
Member
My three week old has had plenty of horrible weather to deal with and so far no real issues. A little temperamental first mile of a journey but after that as good as any other car I’ve had, (and I’ve had a lot ).
Tried rain X coating and washer additive a few years ago in a new Jaguar XF, terrible experience, as soon as the new effect wore off it smeared and juddered, wrecked the wiper blades and I honestly considered at one point having to replace the screen. Just couldn’t get it off and many modern screens have coatings that can be permanently wrecked if you’re to aggressive cleaning them.
).Tried rain X coating and washer additive a few years ago in a new Jaguar XF, terrible experience, as soon as the new effect wore off it smeared and juddered, wrecked the wiper blades and I honestly considered at one point having to replace the screen. Just couldn’t get it off and many modern screens have coatings that can be permanently wrecked if you’re to aggressive cleaning them.
Yachtsman
Member
My three week old has had plenty of horrible weather to deal with and so far no real issues. A little temperamental first mile of a journey but after that as good as any other car I’ve had, (and I’ve had a lot
Tried rain X coating and washer additive a few years ago in a new Jaguar XF, terrible experience, as soon as the new effect wore off it smeared and juddered, wrecked the wiper blades and I honestly considered at one point having to replace the screen. Just couldn’t get it off and many modern screens have coatings that can be permanently wrecked if you’re to aggressive cleaning them.
I've used rainx for years on bmw, vw & mercs without issues, in fact great success.
Ive had it on my m3 from day 4, on the windscreen, roof & rear window obviously missing the area in front of the cameras.& no obvious adverse effect on the wiper action.
Tha' as Yorkshire rain, that's why t' wipers work proper
I find them better than my other cars - LR Disco 4, they are sh1te. 2010 Ford Fiesta - they... well it hasn't got auto wipers
I don't find the wipers to be any better or worse than any other car TBH. If anything what I've found is that I need to delay my reactions by about 0.25 seconds....as soon as my brain thinks "need more wipers" and sends the command to my arm to hit the end-of-stalk button, I find that the wiper does its thang and leaves my arm hanging mid-air like an ignored fist bump.
Sparkeur
Member
Genuinely, that is amazing. I'm exactly the opposite. I've never had a problem with our Disco 4 but they are completely hopeless on my Model 3. I set off this morning (dark and raining) and after getting out of the gates, slowly started to accelerate whereupon I couldn't see a thing because water started flowing like a river over the screen. I pushed the button for a quick wipe but auto still didn't kick-in. Then I had to faff around pressing and swiping to get the hi-speed wiper setting. Next, I drive through a forest so no rain but the wipers are now scraping the screen so repeat push/swipe again etc. Eventually, when there were some road lights, auto worked...presumably because the camera could see the screen/weather. I'll try the voice tip next time but that will probably set the Nav to take me to Ypres...
Auto wipers really don't work in the dark where there are no street lights.. simply because they're using cameras which also don't work in the dark..
So if you live in a town and things are relatively well lit as I am it's not really worse an experience than my leaf was, with some wierdness like mistaking winter sun for rain.. However having experienced driving back from tebay, on a road in deep countrside, so it was *dark* in a bad storm and having the auto wipers do precisely zip, I know how bad it can get.
Voice recognition seems particularly bad at recognising the word 'wipers' (about 50% of the time it says 'wife is off' instead of 'wipers off', which isn't even a command so why it would think I'd say that I've no idea and 'wipers to auto' navigates to a car repair place!) so if I get these problems it means fumbling with the touch screen.
So if you live in a town and things are relatively well lit as I am it's not really worse an experience than my leaf was, with some wierdness like mistaking winter sun for rain.. However having experienced driving back from tebay, on a road in deep countrside, so it was *dark* in a bad storm and having the auto wipers do precisely zip, I know how bad it can get.
Voice recognition seems particularly bad at recognising the word 'wipers' (about 50% of the time it says 'wife is off' instead of 'wipers off', which isn't even a command so why it would think I'd say that I've no idea and 'wipers to auto' navigates to a car repair place!) so if I get these problems it means fumbling with the touch screen.
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