MASTER THREAD: Auto Wiper functionality, complaints, praise, etc.

[adsheff]

How often to wipe is a highly subjective thing, and unfortunately, we don't have the ability to declare a bias for the auto-wipers to make them more or less aggressive.

I think this is missing the point that many of us are making. It's not a case of thinking they should be wiping faster or slower, it's a case of it rains heavily and the windscreen is totally opaque for 20-30 seconds before it wipes. Unfortunately they just don't work at all for many of us.

I think perhaps they were designed for Californian rain and not the constant, mizzley, slastering stuff we get in the UK.

 

[merlin337]

Mine have worked fine for quite a few software versions now. They're still a bit slow occasionally. They're a ton better than they were 16 months ago. What I've found to help immensely is using Rain-X 2 in 1 cleaner - after using it the wipers improved drastically.

Oh and - learn to love that little button that turns on your wipers, the one that you can find immediately when you go blind.

I know about the button. The way my wipers are I have to hit it constantly. It's not an occasional issue. Mine seems to not wipe until you can't see at all and then there is still a delay. Very bad. And wiper control should not be on the screen. This is a dangerous design decision.

 

[sduck]

I know about the button.

Sorry, it sounded like perhaps you weren't aware of it.

Mine seems to not wipe until you can't see at all

Mine don't do this. Just presenting a contrasting opinion.

 

[CharleyBC]

I had an interesting pair of opportunities to evaluate the wipers yesterday. We had rain of varying intensity throughout the day here. In the morning we drove in daylight from Sacramento to Plymouth. The auto wipers worked great. Then we drove back home in the evening, in the dark. The wipers were not responding adequately. Given that we were on CA 16 most of the way, which is a two-lane rural road, this seems to make sense. The car is recognizing rain visually. If it’s dark, and the world ahead is essentially black except for lane lines, it’s probably hard for the car to see the rain on the glass. Indeed, this tended to be confirmed when we would encounter oncoming traffic: suddenly the car had something significant against which to see the rain, and it would start wiping just fine for a while, until we returned to blackness. And later when we got to city freeways with a lot more going on visually, the automatic wipers performed much better.

 

[CharleyBC]

mizzley, slastering stuff

Thank you for expanding my vocabulary!

 

[Electrph]

I had an interesting pair of opportunities to evaluate the wipers yesterday. We had rain of varying intensity throughout the day here. In the morning we drove in daylight from Sacramento to Plymouth. The auto wipers worked great. Then we drove back home in the evening, in the dark. The wipers were not responding adequately. Given that we were on CA 16 most of the way, which is a two-lane rural road, this seems to make sense. The car is recognizing rain visually. If it’s dark, and the world ahead is essentially black except for lane lines, it’s probably hard for the car to see the rain on the glass. Indeed, this tended to be confirmed when we would encounter oncoming traffic: suddenly the car had something significant against which to see the rain, and it would start wiping just fine for a while, until we returned to blackness. And later when we got to city freeways with a lot more going on visually, the automatic wipers performed much better.

Think you’re on to something with the contrast / car recognizing rain on windshield. My wipers would not begin soon enough yet would snap to attention and start wiping moment I went under overpass this was in the early AM. Happened every time went under an overpass reproducible about 6 x
I know this prob does not help OP and agree I would be very frustrated taping button screen cause I can’t safely see out my windshield

 

[adsheff]

Thank you for expanding my vocabulary!

Welcome. Actually I think it's spelled slaister but there we go.

 

[Fredneck]

They simply aren't sensitive enough. Even in heavy rain they only intermittently wipe leaving me blinded most of the time. While blinded I have to take my eyes off the road to turn it to manual. Not a safe situation.

I use manual all the time. I keep rechecking after each update to see if the wipers are usable but they are still not.

And if yours works great then great for you. Doesn't change the fact that many of us have unusable autowipers.

I have no idea why the auto wipers don't work very well. I have seen mine be very slow to start leaving me with poor visibility until I turn them on manually. I've also seen them be overly sensitive coming on for no apparent reason when the windshield is totally dry.

Once they come on and have a few cycles to adjust they seem to work although not perfectly. In many instances they are slow to respond to a change in precipitation and I have to return to manual. The really frustrating part is that the manual control is limited so you can't adjust the intermittent delay like in most cars. Why? Obviously because they don't think you will need it with the auto wiper. Ironic.

 

[mswlogo]

What update???? .40 is pretty much at a stand still.... Looks like it has completely stopped...

Someone says that on every release and then 2 days later I get it. Thanks !!!

 

[Kennymb5384]

Mine are all over the place. From the pic I posted they are not sensitive with plenty of water covering the windshield, and the other day it was sunny with zero clouds or rain, and they went off a few times for no reason...

 

[toolman335]

Update notes:
"Automatic wipers have been improved to be more likely to activate when it is lightly raining and respond to changes in rain intensity for more environments."
Goes on to finish by saying....If automatic wipers is not performing to your preference, any manual adjustment to wiper speed will be captured to further train and improve the network in future software updates."

 

[eddy0090]

I too find the wipers terribly inconsistent. Not sure why they don't just add a sensitivity slider or at least a few different levels for users to choose from.

 

[merlin337]

Drove in to work today in a light drizzle. I would wait to see how long before autowipe would trigger. Each time it got to the point where viability was unsafe and I had to manually wipe. They never triggered the entire 20 minute trip. Not once.

And using the manual controls is not smooth as you have to keep looking away from the road to change speeds. HORRIBLE design. It rains all the time here and this makes me regret buying a M3.

And we all know how great Tesla service is to get a fix on this. Nothing but silence.

 

[ilyak]

Nothing but silence.

What software version are you on? There's new rain detection software coming with 2019.40.x that's currently in limited release.

 

[merlin337]

What software version are you on? There's new rain detection software coming with 2019.40.x that's currently in limited release.

Not sure but I just got an update 2 days ago. Nothing changed regarding the wipers.

 

[ilyak]

Not sure but I just got an update 2 days ago. Nothing changed regarding the wipers.

There wouldn't be any changes unless you updated to 2019.40.x. You can check your software version by opening the Tesla app and scrolling to the bottom of the main screen.

 

[merlin337]

There wouldn't be any changes unless you updated to 2019.40.x. You can check your software version by opening the Tesla app and scrolling to the bottom of the main screen.

OK. thanks. I have 2019.36.2.3

 

[Ivan Abundance]

I had an interesting pair of opportunities to evaluate the wipers yesterday. We had rain of varying intensity throughout the day here. In the morning we drove in daylight from Sacramento to Plymouth. The auto wipers worked great. Then we drove back home in the evening, in the dark. The wipers were not responding adequately. Given that we were on CA 16 most of the way, which is a two-lane rural road, this seems to make sense. .....

That's about where I was, coming back from Poor Red's, but on 49 and then into Ione and home on 104. Didn't seem to have any issues, although they did seem to speed up a bit frantically a couple of times. I'm still optimistic about them.

 

[Magnets!]

The auto wipers go crazy at max speed for the first 20 seconds or so even in almost no rain...It's like they detect a lot of water and go on max speed but don't re-sample for 20 seconds or so. When driving they seem to be ok, but occasionally I have to hit the manual button or put them in manual mode to tame them. I also wished that turning off the car would turn the wipers off, otherwise automode can stay on for days without one realizing it and then come on by themselves and smear up your dry windshield.

Sure wish they would have spent a few bucks for an off the shelf rain sensor and left the computing power for other functions.

 

[RADavid]

My wipers were fine until today. When driving locally today, there was no cell reception, so I did a soft boot and the music system resumed playing after a minute or so. Just a quick spray to clean the windshield before entering my garage and the sprayer stuck on, whether the wipers were running or not. After practically emptying the reservoir, the pump stopped. It didn't occur to me until now to send a bug report. Here in snow country, you can't afford to let the reservoir run dry...too dangerous!
Anyone else have this problem?