Suggestion for Improved Windshield Wiper Interface

[ruralectric]

I've had my 3 for almost a month now, and last night was the first time I've driven in extended, rapidly changing rain conditions. From no rain, to needing highest setting, and back to no rain, and at night on a single lane winding road. I'm very familiar with the wiper controls, but find myself still fumbling to get to the right wiper speed from the touch screen, which I find really difficult when I'm trying to keep the car on the road and can't see because I need more wipers.

It seems to me that the existing wiper functionality could be fully implemented using the wiper stalk only, with no need to reach for the touch screen when you are struggling with visibility:

If wipers are on auto mode then
1 click on wiper stalk gives one wipe,
2 rapid clicks set wipers to lowest continuous setting
Otherwise (wipers already on one of the continuous settings)
1 click returns to auto mode,
2 rapid clicks increases wiper speed if not already at highest speed

Deep press of the stalk would dispense washer fluid, regardless of current wiper setting. The touchscreen would still have a wiper on/off switch.

Note that if the wipers are already on highest speed, then 2 rapid clicks does nothing. I think this is better than returning to auto mode, because if you are not aware that you are already at the max setting and you want more, better to leave on highest setting than to inadvertently switch back to auto and possibly get fewer wipes!

Anyway, I think this would eliminate the need for accessing the touchscreen entirely in situations where your attention is most required elsewhere.

Please like if you agree, or share your thoughts. And please let me know if you have a better idea on how to get this suggestion to Tesla.

Thanks!

 

[TW14 9LF]

Funny, I was thinking almost exactly the same thing a few days ago while driving in the rain for the first time in my Tesla, and first time in a while here in So Cal. Changes: two rapid clicks goes first to intermittent, then to continuous, not straight to continuous. And, I'd like a way to go backwards, i.e. from continuous back to intermittent, without having to shut off and start over.

 

[NJM3]

I was thinking the same thing! This would help so much with mist coming off other cars on the highway.

 

[mbranciforte]

Very good suggestions! Definitely would be helpful improvements. Thanks for your ideas!

 

[Need]

I like it OP. Simple. Although I can't complain about it being in SoCal. I drove the car daily and only had to use the wipers for 2 days for the last 7000 miles.

 

[ruralectric]

I've had my 3 for almost a month now, and last night was the first time I've driven in extended, rapidly changing rain conditions. From no rain, to needing highest setting, and back to no rain, and at night on a single lane winding road. I'm very familiar with the wiper controls, but find myself still fumbling to get to the right wiper speed from the touch screen, which I find really difficult when I'm trying to keep the car on the road and can't see because I need more wipers.

It seems to me that the existing wiper functionality could be fully implemented using the wiper stalk only, with no need to reach for the touch screen when you are struggling with visibility:

If wipers are on auto mode then
1 click on wiper stalk gives one wipe,
2 rapid clicks set wipers to lowest continuous setting
Otherwise (wipers already on one of the continuous settings)
1 click returns to auto mode,
2 rapid clicks increases wiper speed if not already at highest speed

Deep press of the stalk would dispense washer fluid, regardless of current wiper setting. The touchscreen would still have a wiper on/off switch.

Note that if the wipers are already on highest speed, then 2 rapid clicks does nothing. I think this is better than returning to auto mode, because if you are not aware that you are already at the max setting and you want more, better to leave on highest setting than to inadvertently switch back to auto and possibly get fewer wipes!

Anyway, I think this would eliminate the need for accessing the touchscreen entirely in situations where your attention is most required elsewhere.

Please like if you agree, or share your thoughts. And please let me know if you have a better idea on how to get this suggestion to Tesla.

Thanks!

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get more visibility on this? At the rate it's going this won't likely make it to "Best Posts". What's the best way to get this to Tesla? Thanks.

 

[RTPEV]

I'm actually fairly happy with how the auto wipers work. They seem to decrease and increase delay as appropriate.

Except: it lets just a little more water build up on the windshield than I prefer.

If there were a setting somewhere to increase (or decrease) the tolerance such that it took less (or more) water on the windshield to trigger a wipe, that would be good. I have a feeling that one small tweak and I could get the auto wipers working just fine to my satisfaction.

Occasionally I might have to do a stalk click to do a "mist" wipe, but other than that I just wish I could up the frequency a tad.

 

[Nhawk]

If you like AUTO, then this won't negatively affect you, but I believe this is a VERY good change for those of us that NEED to adjust the wipe speed manually.
I love OP's suggestions, and I would add one more for snow regions - There should also be wiper OFF mode for when you get into the car and it's covered with a ton of snow or ice and you don't want the wipers going off while you're cleaning the car.

 

[KootsChewt]

The auto wipers don't work reliably (or at all) in snowy conditions over about 50 km/h. The bottom part of my windshield was getting covered with snow melting onto the windshield as it impacted, with slush building up on the bottom edges, but the snow flakes blew over the top ~1/3 of the windshield (which seems to have more rake), so the there was a large gradient in density of water droplets. I ran on auto-wipers the whole 1h 15m commute, and they did not trigger once, not even when beads of water ran up the windshield through the camera area. See photo of how much I was letting the droplets build up (or even more!) with no wiper action.

As soon as I slowed down in the parking lot and snow was hitting/melting on the windshield relatively evenly they triggered fine. I don't see them being able to solve this issue. A separate camera with a view like the driver has so it can evaluate the windshield as a whole, sure.

What I thought of to improve it: implement the ability to change wiping speed with the right wheel button up/down whenever you depress the wiper button on the left stalk (which pulls up the "wiper" card). I think this would be a bit more intuitive then double-clicking the button on the stalk as first suggested.

(If I'm busy adjusting my wipers, I'm not going to be adjusting my cruise control speed, so temporarily re-assigning the scroll wheel should work just fine. A bit harder to code, but not really.)

 

[rollo.martins]

Why not take the wiper control to a scroll wheel?

Trigger a first wipe with the stalk and bring up wiper settings, or bring up wiper settings with the stalk if wipers are already running, then change wiper speed/auto sensitivity with the wheel (off, intermittent, slow, medium, fast if on manual, sensitivity +/- if on auto)? Change auto/manual with left/right click on the same wheel.

You can of course keep the controls on the screen at the same time for users who prefer the screen.

Would be so easy.

 

[KootsChewt]

Why not take the wiper control to a scroll wheel?

Trigger a first wipe with the stalk and bring up wiper settings, or bring up wiper settings with the stalk if wipers are already running, then change wiper speed/auto sensitivity with the wheel (off, intermittent, slow, medium, fast if on manual, sensitivity +/- if on auto)? Change auto/manual with left/right click on the same wheel.

You can of course keep the controls on the screen at the same time for users who prefer the screen.

Would be so easy.

Even better then what I posted just above - I like the addition of controlling the sensitivity of Auto.

Was snowing like crazy on my way home tonight and Auto is definitely not up to the task of figuring out when to wipe, which makes an easy way to adjust the speed even more necessary.

 

[TW14 9LF]

Why not take the wiper control to a scroll wheel?

Trigger a first wipe with the stalk and bring up wiper settings, or bring up wiper settings with the stalk if wipers are already running, then change wiper speed/auto sensitivity with the wheel (off, intermittent, slow, medium, fast if on manual, sensitivity +/- if on auto)? Change auto/manual with left/right click on the same wheel.

You can of course keep the controls on the screen at the same time for users who prefer the screen.

Would be so easy.

Like this idea better than the first idea (clicking the stalk).

Now how do we get Tesla SW engineering to read this?

 

[Snerruc]

Sounds like you need a S. That’s how the wipers work in mine.

 

[G78M3]

This. I actually suggested exactly this to Tesla a few months ago, they acknowledged it as a "very good suggestion" that would be passed on to developers. I'm not holding my breath....

Why not take the wiper control to a scroll wheel?

Trigger a first wipe with the stalk and bring up wiper settings, or bring up wiper settings with the stalk if wipers are already running, then change wiper speed/auto sensitivity with the wheel (off, intermittent, slow, medium, fast if on manual, sensitivity +/- if on auto)? Change auto/manual with left/right click on the same wheel.

You can of course keep the controls on the screen at the same time for users who prefer the screen.

Would be so easy.

 

[saltsman]

Keep the controls on the stalk... something like this.

• Press = on/off
• Press and Hold and Push Up = increase speed
• Press and Hold and Push Down = decrease speed