It Rains up here in Washington, HELLO!

[RustedNut]

Recently we took a drive in out Model Y. It was a 45 mile jaunt from Bremerton to Tacoma. It just happened to be the first rainy day in months. Just about the time we reached the Tacoma Narrows Bridge wired things began to happen. The display began to shoyellow
and red lines indicating some objects near the car. At first I thought that maybe the bridge supports may have confused the computer however those lines persisted after we had crossed the bridge. Then I lost the cruise control and the display posted a warning that it was no longer available. And of course without that function auto drive was also effected.

Now when it rains you will need wipers. Yes they work however there are a number of issues here. They don’t seem to handle light drizzle very well. They don’t seem to be able to deliver that occasional swipe when needed. You either don’t have a swipe when needed or the blades are skipping or hopping over a dry windshield! Probably more troubling is the fact that you never know when they may start. As I opened the door to get in the wiper took a big scoop of rainwater and shot it over to the opened door. This hit the inside of the window and that caused it to come streaming into the car drenching the driver! The logic should read “Door open, no wiper!”

if I had known that these cars were built to be operated in California, I may have looked elsewhere!

 

[GtiMart]

The DeepRain AI wiper system is indeed not perfect. You can press the left stalk button to get them to wipe once when needed. Alternatively, you can set them to normal intermittent/low/high operation like any other car.

The color bars around the car are just warnings based on the proximity sensors around the car. As with any warning, the driver has the final say. IF you lost autopilot, your cameras were probably too dirty. Maybe you've driven in some mud?

 

[caffeinated]

I'm not sure how much rain @RustedNut experienced, but during a heavy downpour we lost the autopilot on the highway. Disappointing, because I would have preferred to have the Tesla looking out for other vehicles while visibility was definitely compromised. The autopilot was easily re-engaged once the heavy shower passed. I'm glad to have the autopilot assistance on long road trips, but it definitely isn't level 5 and it won't be anytime soon.

 

[GtiMart]

Well, the system is based on vision / cameras... if you cannot see, they cannot see. Since you slow down, the car would also need to slow down. The car has multiple cameras in different angles so it can be better than a human, but that is limited by visibility. Once they get to L5, the car will slow down too when it encounters such bad conditions. There's no magic.
Radar/laser scanning has its flaws and limitations too...