Is it madness that wipers can't be controlled by the driver on cruise control or autopilot mode?

[Canoe Daddy]

I live in Canada. The snow is here and so is the salt and sand on the roads. The car gets filthy on every drive. There is no option to turn off auto wipers when my 2020 M3 is in cruise control or autopilot mode. The wipers kick on constantly streaking my windows. The only way to turn them off is to go off autopilot and/or cruise control. I have essentially not been able to use either autopilot or cruise control for three weeks now since the winter weather has arrived. This is because of a software update. This is my third winter with the car and I haven't had this problem before. I've called Tesla again today on this issue and was told that they are looking to make this a permanent feature. If that is the case, I will sell my car. It is making me hate the Tesla experience. What is the logic behind not allowing a driver to control his/her own wipers?!?!? I will never know.

 

[rjpjnk]

Auto wipers and auto high beams are two things Tesla is really bad at. The funny thing is, these are two of the easiest features to implement for most other cars that don’t insist on using cameras only. I’ve just accepted that they will probably always suck. Helps keep Tesla humble.

 

[(crunch)]

God I had the worst time with this yesterday. Constant dry wiping whenever I turned on tacc or autopilot, super frustrating. If you can't fix the problem, then let us turn it off during autopilot!

 

[GtiMart]

I'm sure it's been said here before but I'll say again: S3XY buttons will let you disable this automatic wipers (and high beams) on autopilot as a smart action... in case you want to fix it yourself.

 

[kpanda17]

With 2023.20.7 auto wiper operation is vastly improved

 

[arbitrage000]

With 2023.20.7 auto wiper operation is vastly improved

Good to know. I don't think we will see rain here for a few months so will have to see how they are in October. Lots of rain during the winter. Of course by then we will be well past 2023.20.7 which knowing Tesla could make it even better.....or worse

 

[kpanda17]

With this code loaded, I did rhe test
Auto worked remarkably better
Then I realized why when using cruse/AP/EAP/FSD you cannot turn off the wipers
Makes sense for Tesla Vision to work, it needs rhe cameras which the front behind the windshield would be hindered by rain on rhe glass
Turn off cruse/AP/EAP/FSD
Then you can turn off the wipers

 

[(crunch)]

With 2023.20.7 auto wiper operation is vastly improved

I’m already on that, and see my post above. It’s terrible.

 

[smogne41]

I’m already on that, and see my post above. It’s terrible.

Yeah, people have said this since 2018 about the wipers with almost every update, yet they still suck.

 

[kpanda17]

2023.20.8 arrived in the Ts tonight
Maybe more fine tuning auto wipers some more

 

[DrChaos]

So I turned CC off and then turned the wipers off. Drove over the hill without using either (my commute involves going over a mountain pass). Arriving at the valley floor I found the weather to be low clouds and fog - with some accumulation of moisture on the windshield. I turned on Auto Wipers (only - no CC) and continued the five miles more to my office. There was no response from the wipers for the entire distance.

The auto wipers are for the camera's benefit, not yours unfortunately. There is a special small heater for the windshield in front of the camera. It's probable it turned on and defogged the camera sufficiently, so that it decided it didn't need to autowipe.

And in other cases like dirt the autowipe will go nuts trying to clean the camera area when it can't. This is all because Elon told them to get rid of the physical rain sensor which was in early S models. Unlike autobrights (which was fixed with software update), this can never be fixed properly in software because the right hardware is missing.

You have to treat the car like it has manual wipers which can be disobedient at times.

 

[Spinkick]

Wipers have not really improved as far as I can tell. That, along with wipers being innefective that far up on the model Y windshield makes it a real pain. I am not sure how something like this can get by a huge company like Tesla, but I bet they save enough money per car that they are willing to let us just live with it.

 

[peter1277]

If that is so then why does not using the wipers (auto or not) resolve the issue? The wipers don't quit even if you do a full windshield wash (actually the first thing I tried).

Anyway, today I cleaned the glass in front of the camera(s) - but it made no difference. As soon as I got on the freeway and engaged CC the wipers started up. So I disengaged CC and turned the wipers off. This time the weather was overcast (around dawn) with no precipitation.
After going over the pass I found the weather in the valley like yesterday - low clouds and fog, and very slight preciptitation. I put he wipers in Auto (but no CC). Nothing. After a couple of miles I engaged CC. Still nothing for
the remainder of the way. So I guess congratulations are in order for Tesla concerning their counter-intuitive
wildshield wipers (work when they shouldnt, and don't when they should)!

Dave

I have the same experience. A 2023 Tesla model Y, CC is unusable because the wipers are on continuously on a sunny day, and don't come on when raining. windshield glass is perfectly clean - makes no difference. I made a service appt and was told that it would have to be fixed with a software update, so clearly this is a bug in the software. When I take a trip I have to use my 2018 model 3 which works perfectly - CC does not force auto mode on wipers, and I can put them on when raining and turn off when sunny. Forget autopilot - I just want to use cruise control on a brand new car and can't because of this wiper bug. Hard to believe that Tesla would not fix such a major bug by now!

 

[kpanda17]

Only wipers on are is forced, not auto
You can select I II or III
But if using any version of AP, including CC, the wipers must be used

What code is running on rhe Y? We have the same vehicle
I no issue with rhe wipers, I’m running 26.1

 

[lensovet]

When I take a trip I have to use my 2018 model 3 which works perfectly - CC does not force auto mode on wipers

when did you buy your car? does it have AP or EAP?

 

[APotatoGod]

This is seriously such an infuriating problem, so often the wipers will start when it's completely clear out and sunny, and ends up streaking the windshield and wearing out the wipers with no benefit whatsoever, and forcing me to turn off autopilot! Happens with both of my family's cars, around 5 years apart in age, so it's not something that they've seemed to make any effort to fix in newer models either.

 

[rjpjnk]

I seem to have the opposite problem. My wipers don't wipe frequently enough even when it is obviously raining. I never experienced nuisance wiping when the windshield was dry. Anyone else have the no-wipe-when-wet problem?

 

[kpanda17]

Guys, need to talk code versions and behavior
To rjpjnk, no never happened
Codes 26.1 and 26.6, no issues except move off AUTO to one of rhe hashes if annoying
Interesting, with 26.6 I’m seeing that I am leaving it on AUtO more

 

[arbitrage000]

I rarely have had the wipe when dry issue although I also don't run AP a whole lot.
I've found when raining the Auto works fairly well when the rain is consistent. Very light rain sometimes wipes too much. Super heavy rain sometimes doesn't wipe enough.
But despite living in a coastal rain forest, I haven't seen a drop of rain for the past 3+ months. Come Oct/Nov I will be able to see if there have been any improvements or regressions over the past few FW updates.
I will say that it is a big improvement that you can now select the 1,2,3 levels in AP and not only Auto as it used to be.
Also a huge plus is more recent ability to use the left wheel toggle to move through the settings after hitting the left stalk button. When Auto is a mess it is easy to set it to an appropriate level yourself without messing around with the touchscreen like you had to do previously.
Glad to see that headlights on when wipers on has been added in the most recent FW...another plus.

 

[smogne41]

I seem to have the opposite problem. My wipers don't wipe frequently enough even when it is obviously raining. I never experienced nuisance wiping when the windshield was dry. Anyone else have the no-wipe-when-wet problem?

Yeah, I rarely get the dry wipes, but very often it underwipes when raining. Especially in very light rain, or in rural areas after dark (so no street lights). Which makes sense, no light no signal if you are going to rely on cameras. Let's face it, the auto wipers are not suddenly going to start working great in the future with some software update. They have only had marginal improvements in the 5 years I have owned the car (and a few regressions). They are fundamentally crippled because of basic physics, not because of bad or lazy software (though there is probably a lot of that as well).

 

[APotatoGod]

Yeah, I rarely get the dry wipes, but very often it underwipes when raining. Especially in very light rain, or in rural areas after dark (so no street lights). Which makes sense, no light no signal if you are going to rely on cameras. Let's face it, the auto wipers are not suddenly going to start working great in the future with some software update. They have only had marginal improvements in the 5 years I have owned the car (and a few regressions). They are fundamentally crippled because of basic physics, not because of bad or lazy software (though there is probably a lot of that as well).

That problem is much easier to resolve at least, since you can always press the stalk button or adjust the wiping speed to go faster. Meanwhile there's no options at all other than completely stopping use of autopilot when it is wiping while dry (or apparently buying the multi-hundred dollar buttons someone else recommended earlier).