[Feature Request] - Wipers On : Lights On?

[rogue1954]

It is law in many places to have your lights on when your wipers turn on. Unless I am missing something, I don’t see that as an option to happen automatically. This seems like a simple upgrade in software. Does anyone know anything about this feature? How do you make a suggestion to Tesla? Thank You

 

[Tha_Ape]

I heard Teslas used to do that then for some reason stopped.

I'd definitely like to see it as at least menu option you could turn on and off. It honestly seems pretty easy to implement, too. If wipers on for x amount of time (30sec?), turn on lights. If wipers stop for 1min and it's not dark, turn offl ights

 

[EVRider-FL]

Before I started using FSD Beta, the headlights always came on when the wipers came on. Now they don't. Not sure if this is intentional or a bug.

 

[smogne41]

It is law in many places to have your lights on when your wipers turn on. Unless I am missing something, I don’t see that as an option to happen automatically. This seems like a simple upgrade in software. Does anyone know anything about this feature? How do you make a suggestion to Tesla? Thank You

Yeah, this used to be the behavior. Tesla (without announcement) removed it for some totally unknown reason some time in the last 2 years. One of the few times I actually liked a Tesla auto feature and they removed it! The company is so strange sometimes.

 

[Tha_Ape]

I honestly don't bother most of the time, but last week we had some heavy rain during the day and barely anyone on the road had their lights on. I had to manually turn mine on because I thought it was pretty dangerous not to.

It's kind of a pain to do that too (voice command didn't seem to work for "turn headlights on"... command not recognized) so I had to figure out how to do it on the fly. I generally just leave it on auto as I imagine most people do regardless of car make.

Tesla has auto steering wheel heater, surely we can tie auto headlights to the wipers, even if it's just an option to turn on/off

 

[Shelburne]

Just recently, my wife was following me in our 2020 M3 when we went thru a heavy downpour. I looked in the rearview mirror of the car I was driving and I could see that when the rain sensing wipers came on in our M3 so did the headlights. Also, she wasn't in cruise control and we don't have FSD.

 

[RayK]

Maybe it just got dark enough for the lights to come on regardless whether it was raining or not?? I'm assuming that your M3 is running one of the latest versions of software. I believe that sometime in 2021 was when automatic lights on when raining was removed. At least that's what I remember reading here somewhere.

edit: Found this: Auto headlights with wipers function deleted

 

[ewoodrick]

DRLs should always be on.

 

[smogne41]

Yeah, the lights still come on if it gets dark enough. I have had them come on in rain if the clouds are dark. But if it is still bright they do not come on, no matter how heavy the rain

 

[skygraff]

DRLs should always be on.

This is a common confusion. DRLs don't turn on taillights and identifying the tail of the vehicle in low visibility, for following traffic, is one of the primary reasons for the law in most places.

I've noticed a similar problem with people who've gotten used to automatic lights (in any vehicle). Since modern instrument panels are always lit, when there's sufficient street lighting, people will drive for miles in the dark with their external lights turned off; some have DRLs but none have tail lights.

There are many threads on this subject but until somebody with pull decides to tweet Elon, we'll never see the issue fixed since there's no feedback to the software teams who break perfectly good features when pushing updates without full testing. I swear, they need to use checklists and confirm all previous functions persist between iterations - OTA updates to vehicles shouldn't be treated the same as game updates where a bug or backstep is, at most, an inconvenience rather than a violation of the law or safety concern.

 

[fholbert]

It is law in many places to have your lights on when your wipers turn on. Unless I am missing something, I don’t see that as an option to happen automatically. This seems like a simple upgrade in software. Does anyone know anything about this feature? How do you make a suggestion to Tesla? Thank You

I've always wondered the same.

In newer cars the daytime running lights are on. In California that qualifies.

 

[RayK]

I've always wondered the same.

In newer cars the daytime running lights are on. In California that qualifies.

If you mean to say that having only DRL on (and not the headlights) during the rain and with wipers continuously running is legal in CA, I don't think so. Last I checked (Sept 2021) it did not seem to be the case:

Law section

 

[fholbert]

If you mean to say that having only DRL on (and not the headlights) during the rain and with wipers continuously running is legal in CA, I don't think so. Last I checked (Sept 2021) it did not seem to be the case:

Law section

A couple of years ago that was a question on the news. CHP said it was okay but preferred you turn the headlights on so the back of your car lights up too.

I was driving a Chevy Tahoe at the time. I’d had to pull over and stop to figure out how to turn on the headlights manually.

 

[BitJam]

I solved a similar issue using S3XY Buttons. In my previous car I could keep the headlights on all the time while I was driving. I missed this feature so I programmed one button to toggle the headlights. I turn them on before I start driving and they turn off automatically when I stop.

 

[unhyphy]

This is one of the things that annoys me about my M3. At least give me a toggle so I have the option to have headlights with wipers.

My RAM pickup has this option in the UI.

 

[terranx]

They used to do this. They disabled it without even adding a toggle for unclear reasons.

 

[Tha_Ape]

Our wish has been granted!

2023.26

(Its almost as if Tesla knew this was coming out and wanted to generate a buzz around it ahead of release... )

 

[terranx]

Our wish has been granted!

2023.26

(Its almost as if Tesla knew this was coming out and wanted to generate a buzz around it ahead of release... )

Hmm yeah the OP was an account that was made 2 days ago and has a single post. Tesla has been known to astroturf, would not be surprising if that were the case.

 

[ewoodrick]

Hmm yeah the OP was an account that was made 2 days ago and has a single post. Tesla has been known to astroturf, would not be surprising if that were the case.

Ot maybe it was dropped accidentally and eventually found and replaced.