Poor sensitivity for rain with Auto setting on Wipers

[ℬête Noire]

We have had a record amount of rain this month in south Texas and I have done well with the wipers set to auto but they do still feel like they should come on a bit faster. I treated my windshield with Rain X and that helped quite a bit.

This is my plan for this week. I've used Rain-X before and it's very helpful, auto-wipers or not. Even using the Rain X brand washer fluid can help to some extent. With not going to gas stations regularly EVs need an alternative plan for handling windshield cleaning.

 

[GPinzone]

Same here. I have to turn the wipers on through the menu to get a reliable setting.

 

[ucla95]

Never had an issue with any other vehicle with auto-wipers until this one. They need to increase the sensitivity on the Model 3 - I agree with OP, I can barely see out the windshield before they come on. Other cars (like the XC90) even have a dial where you can adjust the senstivity yourself.

 

[plasmo]

I tried adding Rain-X yesterday. It works a 'little' better, but I found several (large) areas on the front windshield where after applying Rain-X, it would reveal areas of stickiness, and I had to rub it quite hard to get these areas clean. Some initial streaking as well, especially after wipers are used again too.

 

[ecarfan]

There were multiple threads about how the older AP1 cars with sensors worked great and the new ones not at all for lack of the sensor until a software update finally enabled the cameras to do it, a LONG time later.

Sadly, I agree, except that in my Model X experience AP2 (Enhanced Auto Pilot) auto wipe still does not work nearly as well as AP1.I have not yet had the opportunity to try auto wipe in my new 3 but it sounds like for many owners it is not useful.

I am confident that in the future Tesla will solve this issue via a firmware update.

 

[DntWryBHpy]

+1 on this... I think it's a major issue that needs to be fixed. My wife has been driving on Interstate highways in sudden downpours and no auto-wiper action for many seconds. Vision obscured, going fast, having to take your eyes off the road to play with the touchscreen to find the manual wiper control. It's a very bad combination. We love our Model 3 - we are fans, not complainers - but for us, this is a safety issue and knowing how much Tesla cares about safety, it should be addressed.

 

[Jaguar]

+1 on this... I think it's a major issue that needs to be fixed. My wife has been driving on Interstate highways in sudden downpours and no auto-wiper action for many seconds. Vision obscured, going fast, having to take your eyes off the road to play with the touchscreen to find the manual wiper control. It's a very bad combination. We love our Model 3 - we are fans, not complainers - but for us, this is a safety issue and knowing how much Tesla cares about safety, it should be addressed.

Just press the button at the end of the left stalk for a quick windshield wipe. No need to fiddle around with the screen.

 

[Trips]

I was impressed with the wipers but they should be a little quicker to activate for misty rain. It's easy to hit the button so not a big deal. Regular rain they are great in my opinion.

 

[jlv1]

I've turned off the auto-wiper setting because of these issues.

 

[Jdee2wheels]

I'd say this is one of our families bigger complaints with the car (up there with the turn signals! ) . We've had a ton of rain this year on the east coast, and the auto wipers are basically useless. I'm coming from a 2007 Mazda 3 that had auto-wipers that worked very well, so it's amusing to me that a car double the price and 10 years newer can't sort this out. Anyway, I'm generally fine using the screen for infrequent controls, but when you are dealing with sudden rain at high speed, I don't want to deal with the screen at all (yes I know you can hit the stalk button first to bring up the HUD). I'm also curious if it's more than just a simple fix like adding some sensitivity adjustment. My wipers on Auto seem totally inconsistent....one minute mostly working (but slow) and then the next not wiping at all even as the rain increases.

 

[Highlander1010]

We had rain this morning, so for the first time I got to see the auto wipers in action. Not good. They stutter across the window poorly. When I use the wiping spray, or turn the wipers off and use single click wiping, everything is fine. If I go back to auto, they stutter and make the car look like it operates poorly.

Now, my assumption, is that being that this is a brand new window with brand new wiper blades AND the rain was misty to mild, means what is happening is purely friction based and will improve with time. I assume that the auto is going too fast across too little moisture on a pretty slime free window and as such, is actually catching from time to time between the blade rubber and the glass.

Still, my Audi A4 with auto wipers never once did this, even new. I think it is possible that the wiper rubber on the Model 3 may just be too grippy or stiff. Not sure, but it certainly seems like it.

Thoughts?

 

[ℬête Noire]

Are you sure there is no sensor? On some other threads people believed the sensor above the front cameras is a light/temperature/humidity sensor.

I just spoke to Ranger Max, who's here right now tweaking my panels. He stated that the system currently also uses the light sensor, to the top right of the windshield camera port. Also said that Tesla HQ is working on a software patch, because of all the feedback.

up there with the turn signals!

This is my bane, #1 dislike about the vehicle right now. Unsurprisingly so because I've disliked this return-to-center design style every time I've encountered it before.

 

[PhobosDeimos]

Just got software version 46.2 and I noticed that the wiper sensitivity seems much better. Hard to tell if it is real or imagined. However, it used to bug the heck out of me, and since the update I have not had to manually activate wipers once.

 

[artsci]

I have no problems whatsoever and it’s been raining here for the past several days. This morning, the rain briefly turned into a misty kind of thing, and as soon as I started the car the wipers cleared the windshield.

 

[Micalith]

There was a brief period in between updates where the sensitivity of the auto windscreen wipers was increased, and basically worked fine. Then a further update, and it seemed to be set back to the original very poorly responsive setting. Can't remember which updates they were. I think it was around late spring or early summer. Anyone else experience something like that?

 

[McFlurri]

There was a brief period in between updates where the sensitivity of the auto windscreen wipers was increased, and basically worked fine. Then a further update, and it seemed to be set back to the original very poorly responsive setting. Can't remember which updates they were. I think it was around late spring or early summer. Anyone else experience something like that?

Auto wipers has always been *sugar* for me

 

[Snow Drift]

I used it a few weeks ago on 44.x and mist/drizzle it was too slow to react on local roads. However, once I got on the highway, maybe due to extra spray from traffic, it started wiping a lot sooner (maybe a second too soon).

 

[Micalith]

Auto wipers has always been *sugar* for me

I used it a few weeks ago on 44.x and mist/drizzle it was too slow to react on local roads. However, once I got on the highway, maybe due to extra spray from traffic, it started wiping a lot sooner (maybe a second too soon).

Yeah, maybe it was a coincidence that in between updates I only drove on fast roads when it happened to be raining

 

[PoitNarf]

2018.48.12.1 doesn’t seem to be any better in terms of rain sensing for me. I was driving yesterday and at one point the wipers were going near max speed when I was stopped in traffic and only light rain was coming down. The first or second speeds would have been fine. I ended up putting it in manual mode because I don’t want my wipers getting worn too quickly.

 

[Micalith]

Has anybody tried putting RainX on the windshield except for the area over the cameras? This might work well and not mess up the AI programming.

Yes! I just tried this after your suggestion. Just had my first instance of soft misty rain, the type which usually takes the longest to build up before the wipers come on. They came on almost too early! I changed the sensitivity to the lower setting and they were working perfectly for the first time ever.

I'll update once I've been in different rain types, but so far this looks like the solution