Feature Request - Remote Control of Wipers for Snow

[Electric > Gas]

I live in Michigan and my car is parked outside for 8-10 hours while I'm working. I only live a few miles from work so I'm not worried about range.

I'm trying to avoid the need scrape my car when it's been snowing all day. We can control many things the application but not the wipers. I would love to be able to run the wipers manually a few times a day to keep the snow from building up on the windshield. Can anybody think of a way to do that? Better yet would be if the wipers could sense the snow and wipe on their own through the day or if I could set up a program to have the defroster come on for two minutes every hour and the wipers run at slow speed for those two minutes.

Thoughts? What do you do with your Tesla to make winter more manageable?

 

[helvio]

This is something! Why don't you tweet @elonmusk and post the link here? I'm sure a lot of people would heart your tweet and reply and whatnot, you know, create momentum. Seems easy to implement! If you don't want to, I could start it!

 

[Briss929]

Maybe the auto mode of the wipers could be ON as we can with the ventilation instead of run it manually?

 

[Raechris]

Interesting thought but when people break their wiper arms, blades, motors, scratch glass - will they blame Tesla for offering the feature - probably. The lasers may help here though

 

[P3dStealth]

You shouldn't run your wipers to get snow off. 98% of the time it works.

I broke the linkage from my wiper motor to the arm on my other car. That's the 2%

 

[Electric > Gas]

This is something! Why don't you tweet @elonmusk and post the link here? I'm sure a lot of people would heart your tweet and reply and whatnot, you know, create momentum. Seems easy to implement! If you don't want to, I could start it!

Go for it! I haven’t used Twitter for years and apparently my account is suspended.

 

[Pianewman]

I wouldn't want my wipers functioning in freezing temps w/o human monitoring.
I never have subscribed to remote starting of ICE cars, either. I want to hear what's going on during those initial, critical seconds of engine start-up, especially in sub-freezing temps. Of COURSE I'm freezing my butt off, but somehow, each time I've done it, I've survived!!!

 

[Electric > Gas]

I wouldn't want my wipers functioning in freezing temps w/o human monitoring.
I never have subscribed to remote starting of ICE cars, either. I want to hear what's going on during those initial, critical seconds of engine start-up, especially in sub-freezing temps. Of COURSE I'm freezing my butt off, but somehow, each time I've done it, I've survived!!!

I actually agree with you. I can see my car out the window and would definitely take a look before turning the wipers on. Just seems like it would be convenient to do that a few times a day to avoid a huge scraping job at the end of the day.

 

[Pianewman]

^^^What you can't see from your window is whether or not the wiper blades are frozen to the windshield.

 

[Midnightsun]

As others have mentioned that would not work very well. I suggest you get something similar to this. I rarely use it but if the forecast is for freezing rain then I will put it on, they really work well by the way. Only drawback is they are obviously wet when you put it back in the car so you need to let it dru up before packing it back up. https://www.homedepot.ca/product/fr...CT_GROUP_pla-558654466690&gclsrc=ds&gclsrc=ds

 

[jcanoe]

Forcing the windshield wipers to move when they are frozen to the glass will damage the wiper blades, could damage the wiper mechanism.

To help melt any accumulated snow and ice precondition the Tesla vehicle with the maximum defrost function turned on starting 30 minutes before you plan to leave. You can then brush off any remaining snow from the windshield, rear glass and side windows, mirrors, head lights and tail lights using just a snow brush. You should also brush off any accumulated snow from the roof of the vehicle before driving.

To prevent ice on the glass a windshield cover is a great winter driving accessory. Check on Amazon as there are many styles and sizes of windshield covers.

 

[Pianewman]

...or you could do what my TX BIL did his first winter in Cleveland. Pour a pot of boiling water on the windshield. Replace and...uhh...DON'T repeat!