Auto Wipers are awful

[browellm]

That seems to tally with the general experience.

The frustration remains that other manufacturers have this off pat, by means of a 50p capacitive sensor and a bit of code that builds some hysteresis into the system. The BMW system works "perfectly" because although it's automatic, it provides four selectable levels of sensitivity which pretty much cover the preferences of all types of drivers and the prevailing weather types.

 

[Foucault]

I wonder if the issue with the auto wipers is down to using a camera rather than infra red sensors that other manufacturers use as that would explain why they are particularly rubbish at night where contrast isn’t going to be that high?

 

[Jez_GB]

I wonder if the issue with the auto wipers is down to using a camera rather than infra red sensors that other manufacturers use as that would explain why they are particularly rubbish at night where contrast isn’t going to be that high?

The consensus seems to suggest this is the issue - Tesla know it too, but they are frustratingly single minded and (at present) still insisting that it can work.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I wonder if the issue with the auto wipers is down to using a camera rather than infra red sensors that other manufacturers use as that would explain why they are particularly rubbish at night where contrast isn’t going to be that high?

I'm as close to being certain that this is the root cause as I can be. As mentioned in an earlier post, IR reflective rain sensing works no matter what the ambient light level, whereas a camera solution always needs to compensate for changing light levels, reflections, etc. The IR sensors use filters that block almost every wavelength apart from the LED wavelength, so are inherently insensitive to any change in ambient light level. Given that they are dirt cheap (a replacement rain sensor for most makes costs around $20) it's hard to understand why Tesla didn't just buy an off-the-shelf item for this function. It's not as if they haven't bought off-the-shelf stuff before, the steering wheel stalks bear an uncanny resemblance to Mercedes parts, for example.

 

[Durzel]

I wonder if the issue with the auto wipers is down to using a camera rather than infra red sensors that other manufacturers use as that would explain why they are particularly rubbish at night where contrast isn’t going to be that high?

Yes, Tesla are using cameras when a rain sensor does the job perfectly well, works at night, works when the camera is blinded, works without a camera in fact.

It’s not “disruptive” though, so Tesla have to do it their own way.

 

[Yachtsman]

That seems to tally with the general experience.

The frustration remains that other manufacturers have this off pat, by means of a 50p capacitive sensor and a bit of code that builds some hysteresis into the system. The BMW system works "perfectly" because although it's automatic, it provides four selectable levels of sensitivity which pretty much cover the preferences of all types of drivers and the prevailing weather types.

I can't agree with you regarding bmw. My last three bmws (ok 1 alpina) all over 50k, have all suffered with wipers that go berserk for no reason & to be honest my tesla model 3 hasn't done that once yet. I've not commented previously about the wipers because mine are a tad better than the bmws.

 

[MarkNW]

I've had the wipers not work in full daylight (though obviously cloudy) when the rain was streaking on the windshield and making it hard to see the road (was an empty road so I decided to wait to see if they came on). We will not get this fixed by an OTA update. The problem is that the only rain detector is the front facing camera that's pushed right up against a small part of the windshield. If there's no water in that particular spot there's no information the software gets that's useful. Doesn't matter how smart it is. There would be some hope for a UI fix (e.g. double tap on the washer button does something). The high beams on the other hand get the same info your eyes get and they have gotten better with software.

 

[AndrewGR]

I’m pretty happy with the auto dipping although the headlamps themselves could be better. They seem to dip for oncoming traffic pretty quickly although they leave it later for rear lights than I would. They seem to have improved the issue of dipping for chevrons / reflections from signs although it still happens occasionally. Main complaint is that they are slow to return to main beam - but so was my last car.

Wiper performance seems variable to me. Some journeys they work fine - others they won’t stop or won’t start. I haven’t noticed them being worse on dark country lanes - the main problem there is that the door pillar cameras, especially the left one, thinks they are ‘blocked or blinded’. Car knows it is dark - surely the camera software can take that into account. In any case the door cameras look forward so should be able to see the verges illuminated by the headlights. More so on country lanes between hedges than more open roads.

 

[MrBadger]

it provides four selectable levels of sensitivity which pretty much cover the preferences of all types of drivers and the prevailing weather types.

Another omission which I believe plays a significant role in this too.

The other omission appears to be that the more reliable established methods use a rear view light sensor (the same one used to control rear view mirror auto dimming which is why options for auto dimming mirrors and auto wipers often come as a single option) to avoid false triggering when driving under the shadow of some trees, a bridge or entering a tunnel.

 

[FEERSUMENDJIN]

I don't have any issue with the wipers. Sometimes I give them a nudge with the stalk button to waken them up. But that is it.
I find the auto main beam more annoying, but not annoying enough for me to stop using it. With all TESLA auto stuff, differences in opinion have an easy over ride. Although it does mean I tend to sound mad while giving her a "talking to". Not sure how the autoselect gear drive is going to pan out. I hope you can toggle PRND with repeated brake presses.

 

[AndrewGR]

I’ve had the ‘easy command’ “wipers off” interpreted as “wife is hot”! I’ve more or less given up with voice commands now. Even “play BBC Radio 4” seems to have stopped working.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I believe that some of the variability with voice commands may be down to whether the car has good connectivity at the time you voice the command. I have a feeling that it may work like Alexa, etc, whereby the voice interpretation isn't actually done by the car, but by remote services that are sent a digitised recording.

Certainly Alexa works like this, the only word I believe that it can natively recognise locally is "Alexa", and everything from just before and after after that keyword is just sent to Amazon's servers. The "before" bit is because Alexa devices have a continuous "loop" record system, to ensure that the entire keyword can be accurately captured, plus the Amazon system does a second check to ensure that the keyword trigger was accurately interpreted. The digitised recording is quickly interpreted to allow the correct action to be taken, analysed to add to their machine learning database and the personal data added to their main saleable product, in the same way as pretty much every other web interaction.

If the car does do this, then that would explain why sometimes voice commands work well, and other times they don't seem to work at all. There seems to be some sort of two stage process in the car, as the interpretation of the commands on the screen often seems to be gobbledegook, yet the correct action can still be taken. That sort of suggests that the car has an initial go at doing voice recognition itself, and displays what it thinks has been said on the screen, and if the connectivity is good (I'd guess more a matter of latency than anything else) then Tesla's systems can send the car the correct interpretation. Just speculation, but it fits with what seems to happen

It's also possible, probably likely, that the car internal system might be learning from every voice command interaction, so may well improve as more and more voice commands are processed. I believe this is why the Amazon, Google, Apple, etc systems are now so good, they've had hundreds of millions of chances to learn and refine speech patterns.

 

[M3noob]

Out today on the usual crappy weather that went from drizzle to downpour and, blow me, Auto wipers worked just fine. All hail 2021.4.11

 

[browellm]

Out today on the usual crappy weather that went from drizzle to downpour and, blow me, Auto wipers worked just fine. All hail 2021.4.11

Imagine if that FW has actually fixed them. I could see owners going completely off grid forever just to never install another update

 

[Tiger]

An easy fix could be, that every time user manually intervenes the automatic sequence, for example two or three times, it adapts to that manual frequency (it calculates how many seconds was in between). This would normally work because rain typically stays approximately the same for longer periods. And it could revert to auto mode after longer time or if something significantly changes (it could extrapolate changes needed to compensate vehicle speed changes).

 

[Pagemakers]

100% agree but that’s never going to happen sadly.

 

[Tiger]

100% agree but that’s never going to happen sadly.

An easy fix could be, that every time user manually intervenes the automatic sequence, for example two or three times, it adapts to that manual frequency (it calculates how many seconds was in between). This would normally work because rain typically stays approximately the same for longer periods. And it could revert to auto mode after longer time or if something significantly changes (it could extrapolate changes needed to compensate vehicle speed changes).

Could we maybe summon social media forces to tweet to @elonmusk? @wk057 @Troy @greentheonly and maybe a few more?

 

[Strategium]

I don't have any issue with the wipers. Sometimes I give them a nudge with the stalk button to waken them up. But that is it.
I find the auto main beam more annoying, but not annoying enough for me to stop using it. With all TESLA auto stuff, differences in opinion have an easy over ride. Although it does mean I tend to sound mad while giving her a "talking to". Not sure how the autoselect gear drive is going to pan out. I hope you can toggle PRND with repeated brake presses.

My experience with the auto wipers on my M3 is very similar to what you describe - mostly it works fine, sometimes if it does not start up fast enough I just push the stalk to start it wiping and then it continues ok. Certainly seems to work as well as the auto wiping function in any of the other cars I have owned, or at least well within a performance spectrum that means it is 'just not an issue' as far as I am concerned.

But then, most of the time voice commands also work pretty well for me, and I use them every drive. This is a big change from the situation a year ago when I found the voice commands pretty well useless most of the time. My experience over 15 months owning a M3 is that the Tesla OTA software updates have consistently improved the features and functionality of my car, they just don't do it always in a linear fashion - sometimes one step back before going forward again...

I am interested to know whether the automatic gear selection option previewed for new MS & MX will be provided to UK M3s in future? Not sure how I will like it but actually I am really interested to try it out, especially if it would be a feature you could toggle on or off like Regen braking on the Control Settings Window.

 

[12Pack]

FWIW, the auto wipers and auto high beam were perfect on my old AP1 MS, where the MobilEye system used dedicated sensors.

With the warm weather I really wish I could have that car back, with its opening sunroof, too.

 

[FEERSUMENDJIN]

My experience with the auto wipers on my M3 is very similar to what you describe - mostly it works fine, sometimes if it does not start up fast enough I just push the stalk to start it wiping and then it continues ok. Certainly seems to work as well as the auto wiping function in any of the other cars I have owned, or at least well within a performance spectrum that means it is 'just not an issue' as far as I am concerned.

But then, most of the time voice commands also work pretty well for me, and I use them every drive. This is a big change from the situation a year ago when I found the voice commands pretty well useless most of the time. My experience over 15 months owning a M3 is that the Tesla OTA software updates have consistently improved the features and functionality of my car, they just don't do it always in a linear fashion - sometimes one step back before going forward again...

I am interested to know whether the automatic gear selection option previewed for new MS & MX will be provided to UK M3s in future? Not sure how I will like it but actually I am really interested to try it out, especially if it would be a feature you could toggle on or off like Regen braking on the Control Settings Window.

Yes the voice commands seem much better, and appear to be coping with my scottish accent. I am finding voice control the best way to play specific albums on spotify while driving. Also for calling and dictating texts is all going well.