Tesla auto wipers is a real danger

[Jimmeh]

I don't know if software upgrades have helped or if it learned based on my behavior or what, but I agree that it was absolutely terrible when I first got mine earlier this year. I'd have to do the stalk-tap thing all the time because it wasn't even coming close to going fast enough on its own.

Again, I don't know why, but these days I never have to touch it anymore, and I'm in the PNW so they get plenty of use. Everything from occasionally activating when it's sprinkling to stupid fast in a torrential downpour like the one we had within the last couple weeks.

So yes, it's absolutely garbage for a while, and such an essential function should never be as broken as it is to start with, but (at least in my experience) it gets way better with time.

 

[Spuzzz]

I don't get an attitude of "yeah, it's not perfect, but quit whining". For sure we need to be keep whining here about things that aren't good yet. How else do they know what to fix? And argument that it doesn't work well on a 65k car is legitimate as well.

Yeah, it's not end of the world and for most people wouldn't be a reason to not buy a car. But it's still something they should fix.

Most of you complaining about this won’t believe it but it has improved significantly since 2018….but it’s probably at its limit to what OTAs can improve. It’s never going to work as well as cars with a rain sensor. They use cameras on a 5 square inch window and use that data to predict what the rest of your windshield looks like. All they can improve are ways for you to manually adjust. Like it would be nice for the left scroll wheel to control the speed of the wipers (only active while the wipers are on).

i have read that if you manually set your wipers when you are unhappy, and leave it on that setting for a minute of more, the car begins to learn what your preferences and adapts accordingly. I’m not sure if I believe that, but there was an ota once that sort of suggested that in release notes.

 

[Mash]

Most of you complaining about this won’t believe it but it has improved significantly since 2018….but it’s probably at its limit to what OTAs can improve. It’s never going to work as well as cars with a rain sensor. They use cameras on a 5 square inch window and use that data to predict what the rest of your windshield looks like. All they can improve are ways for you to manually adjust. Like it would be nice for the left scroll wheel to control the speed of the wipers (only active while the wipers are on).

i have read that if you manually set your wipers when you are unhappy, and leave it on that setting for a minute of more, the car begins to learn what your preferences and adapts accordingly. I’m not sure if I believe that, but there was an ota once that sort of suggested that in release notes.

Yeah, it's better now, but can't say it's good. They have many cameras to see it's raining and I'm certain that it doesn't work when camera in fact sees droplets already. So it's just about adding learning function from user manual override input - that is not done.

 

[DblOSmith]

I’ve never been totally sold on any brands “auto wipers”. They mostly all suck. That being said, I’ve been pretty happy with the performance on 10.5 beta.

That's the thing. People have different opinions on when the wipers need to swipe. For me, the fastest setting is more distracting than the rain, so I almost never use it no matter how bad it gets. To me, the M3 auto wipers work fine and are a little too aggressive. No matter what setting Tesla uses, someone will be upset. That's why this complaining is so useless. OP is not even talking about potential solutions. Just venting. That venting is useless.

 

[Mash]

That's the thing. People have different opinions on when the wipers need to swipe. For me, the fastest setting is more distracting than the rain, so I almost never use it no matter how bad it gets. To me, the M3 auto wipers work fine and are a little too aggressive. No matter what setting Tesla uses, someone will be upset. That's why this complaining is so useless. OP is not even talking about potential solutions. Just venting. That venting is useless.

Most other cars have sensitivity adjustment. Tesla doesn't and it doesn't learn. That has to be fixed

 

[Willy’sEV]

Poster above said that it does learn.

Try Rain-x on the windshield.

 

[Mash]

Poster above said that it does learn.

Can you quote who said that?

 

[EmOne]

I don't get an attitude of "yeah, it's not perfect, but quit whining". For sure we need to be keep whining here about things that aren't good yet. How else do they know what to fix? And argument that it doesn't work well on a 65k car is legitimate as well.

Yeah, it's not end of the world and for most people wouldn't be a reason to not buy a car. But it's still something they should fix.

Well, I'm ok with pointing out deficiencies, but complaining about paying too much!! With the MPP chassis upgrades, I have a car that will humble supercars under almost any circumstances of real life, carry 4 people in comfort and costs next to nothing to run and maintain. Bitching about this little *sugar* stuff makes me laugh/cry! Try seeing how much bullshit you would have to put up with with a McLaren, Lambo or the F word!

 

[ManneredFinanc]

I paid $65k for a car that cannot figure out how to make wipers work automatically. Unbelievable. This is not new technology, my 2017 MX3 worked like a charm... same with the auto high-beams. My 2014 M6 was the same. Hell, the last 2019 Focus crapbox rental was flawless.

Dude, if you're regretting the purchase or have that attitude due to the wipers you're not going to be happy. Issues are going to come up. I'm pretty sure it can happen with any purchase.

I have my concerns with my car at times too... But nothing so far has been significant enough for me to hate on the car or to not go buy another one should I lose mine today. It's just that so many other things it does so well that it makes these other issues minuscule.

I personally hate the Auto Wipers too. They suck and I am usually pressing the little button on the side. But if you were to ask me, I'd take the auto pilot and keep my crappy auto wipers. Someone hit and run my car and I was able to get their licence plate due to sentry mode.. There are these and many other things that make me love my Tesla and why after my original purchase 6 of my friends and family got one.

I'm not a Tesla brown noser though. They may have made an amazing car but their last 2 updates made things worst, and their customer service at the Service Centres have been horrible. They dont care half as much about their customers as they did back in 2019 when I got the car.

 

[tm1v2]

I'm noticing insufficient dedication to loving your Tesla here. If your Tesla isn't happy with the weather, you owe it to her to move.
(Yes this is a joke.)

Well, I'm ok with pointing out deficiencies, but complaining about paying too much!! With the MPP chassis upgrades, I have a car that will humble supercars under almost any circumstances of real life, carry 4 people in comfort and costs next to nothing to run and maintain. Bitching about this little *sugar* stuff makes me laugh/cry! Try seeing how much bullshit you would have to put up with with a McLaren, Lambo or the F word!

Supercars aren't exactly known for their day-to-day livability.

The way I view this is EVs still have a price premium over equivalent ICE cars (not supercars). Or put another way, no EV to date quite stacks up to the best like-priced ICE cars (without government incentives), aside from acceleration. Each EV makes different sacrifices. In a Tesla this takes the form of many little cost savings, some of which are 100% fine to me (minimalist interior, efficient engineering under the hood), while others do hurt the experience (no rain sensor, no wiper adjustment knob, no radar, etc).

Would I pay a little extra for an M3P that didn't cut corners in the places that matter to me? Yes I would. But nobody makes that EV.

A Polestar 2 Performance is probably closest. It's a really good car and a good EV, and it has all the usual stalk controls, and ACC that works smoothly (I tested), and 360deg parking view, and I bet its autowipers work better too (no rain during my test drives), and many other benefits. But it's heavier, lesser range, no supercharging, missing lots of useful Tesla/M3P software features, and not quite as quick. I really liked the P2P but it's give-and-take vs M3P, you give up some things to gain others.

The upcoming BMW i4 M50 should be an M3P EV competitor too. Like the Polestar the i4 should have the nice-car basics down, including rain sensor based autowipers and probably a wiper control knob too, and performance that approaches the M3P, and probably the highest quality interior of these three EVs. But compared to an M3P the i4 M50 is $12k more expensive when similarly equipped, 1000 lbs heavier, lacks the Supercharger network, and I'm sure lacks software features that I take for granted now. I welcome the BMW to the EV market but I'm pretty sure I will prefer my M3P.

The same comparison holds elsewhere in the Tesla lineup. It would be great if there was an S Plaid like car with a steering wheel and stalks and better build quality. But nobody makes that car. I guess the Lucid Air Dream Edition Performance is closest, but I would take an S Plaid over that in a heartbeat, even if the Air is perfectly assembled and has all the normal driver controls.

Sorry for the rambling. I too really dislike like my 2021 M3P's autowipers combined with lack of wiper knob. My old S has autowipers that work much better AND a normal wiper knob, but I still prefer driving the M3P.

 

[rpiotro]

Poster above said that it does learn.

Try Rain-x on the windshield.

I believe it does learn. This is my third car with that feature and best I can tell it works as good or better that any of the others. Not perfect but good.

I believe it matters how clean your windshield is. I don't mean like after a car wash but really clean. When I received mine it was peppered with greasy spots that showed up clearly when I ran the wipers over a windshield that was covered in condensation. When the windshield is really cold moisture recondenses as fast as you wipe it until you get a little heat in it. You can see the spots that re-condense faster. I think it traveled from the factory on the the top of the first car behind the locomotive. If I go to a touchless car wash with the high pressure I still get a little soot out of the body drains.

I did what I have done on my other cars before I apply Rain-X. Thoroughly scrub with Dawn for Dishes followed by a polish with Brasso. It improved the auto wiper performance on my previous cars. Even then, if it hadn't rained for a while and the windshield was covered in road grime it would take a few minutes for the wipers to clean it up and settle down. My Q50 had a four step sensitivity setting that was pretty useless. I usually left it on the highest setting or one step down. My wife's Mercedes has only low and high.

I can't speak from a lot of experience with my Tesla yet. I took delivery in August and have had very little rain since. It has been extremely dry since July here in SE Wisconsin. At least no snow yet. There's that.

 

[Mash]

Well, I'm ok with pointing out deficiencies, but complaining about paying too much!! With the MPP chassis upgrades, I have a car that will humble supercars under almost any circumstances of real life, carry 4 people in comfort and costs next to nothing to run and maintain. Bitching about this little *sugar* stuff makes me laugh/cry! Try seeing how much bullshit you would have to put up with with a McLaren, Lambo or the F word!

Model 3 is not an exotic car. It's premium mid-size car and you should expect it to be on the level with others for basic functions. But you have no safe access to wipers speed change and auto mode is not adaptive. This is a clear place where they should improve and where they need to hear our feedback.

 

[Mash]

Dude, if you're regretting the purchase or have that attitude due to the wipers you're not going to be happy. Issues are going to come up. I'm pretty sure it can happen with any purchase.

I have my concerns with my car at times too... But nothing so far has been significant enough for me to hate on the car or to not go buy another one should I lose mine today. It's just that so many other things it does so well that it makes these other issues minuscule.

I personally hate the Auto Wipers too. They suck and I am usually pressing the little button on the side. But if you were to ask me, I'd take the auto pilot and keep my crappy auto wipers. Someone hit and run my car and I was able to get their licence plate due to sentry mode.. There are these and many other things that make me love my Tesla and why after my original purchase 6 of my friends and family got one.

I'm not a Tesla brown noser though. They may have made an amazing car but their last 2 updates made things worst, and their customer service at the Service Centres have been horrible. They dont care half as much about their customers as they did back in 2019 when I got the car.

If you read the post again, you can see there is no hate about the car. It's a hate of that particular annoying thing that shouldn't happen in that price range for cars. You hate it too. He just said it in a different way. If you keep talking about forgiving issues, because something else is better - how are they going to know what to improve?

 

[robl45]

I don’t understand. My auto wipers work perfectly and we have torrential down pours in south Florida. I’ve never had to manually adjust them

 

[father_of_6]

I don’t understand. My auto wipers work perfectly and we have torrential down pours in south Florida. I’ve never had to manually adjust them

We don't understand either

Overall, my auto wipers are *okay* at best. My opinion is that they'll always be insufficient and better manual controls is not a *want*, but a *need*.

 

[iwannam3]

I don’t understand. My auto wipers work perfectly and we have torrential down pours in south Florida. I’ve never had to manually adjust them

Try sporadic mists and light showers like in the PNW. No excuse not to have sensitivity adjustable by voice or slider.

 

[tm1v2]

I don’t understand. My auto wipers work perfectly and we have torrential down pours in south Florida. I’ve never had to manually adjust them

It's light rain and drizzle where they mess up, at least for me. They usually turn on for it but go way overboard in wiper speed. In heavy rain where I want higher wiper speed they work fine.

They do seem a little better so far after the latest software update I received. Not sure if any real change in their programming, or I'm just imagining it or encountering more favorable conditions for them.

 

[rpiotro]

I don’t understand. My auto wipers work perfectly and we have torrential down pours in south Florida. I’ve never had to manually adjust them

Because the windshield gets scrubbed clean frequently? They get exercised more?

 

[robl45]

It's light rain and drizzle where they mess up, at least for me. They usually turn on for it but go way overboard in wiper speed. In heavy rain where I want higher wiper speed they work fine.

They do seem a little better so far after the latest software update I received. Not sure if any real change in their programming, or I'm just imagining it or encountering more favorable conditions for them.

People seem to think I'm joking or something. I've seen these threads over the past couple of years. I really don't understand, mine work perfectly in all conditions, I never manually use the wipers except to clean my windshield and I don't normally do that because I don't like cleaning smurf throwup off the side of my car where most of the cleaning solution ends up. But really light rain, heavy rain, I've never adjusted them. My wife's Infiniti/Lexus aren't as good as this.

 

[tm1v2]

People seem to think I'm joking or something. I've seen these threads over the past couple of years. I really don't understand, mine work perfectly in all conditions, I never manually use the wipers except to clean my windshield and I don't normally do that because I don't like cleaning smurf throwup off the side of my car where most of the cleaning solution ends up. But really light rain, heavy rain, I've never adjusted them. My wife's Infiniti/Lexus aren't as good as this.

I like to run my wipers to run at the lowest frequency possible while still retaining visibility. Maybe you like to run your wipers quicker and that's why they suit you better?

The autowipers in my 2013 S work better. 99% reliable in any kind of rain or drizzle, and the speed choices are better. Of course they use a normal rain sensor and not a camera-based algorithm. I still slow them down manually sometimes, mainly when stopped, but that's easy when the car has a normal wiper knob.

Honestly I would be happy with manual wiper control only and don't need autowipers, if it was a normal knob.

Oh and the OTHER thing that bugs me is, when the are wipers off, you can't directly select which mode to change them to! That's just inane, there is no reason to hide all the mode buttons on the touchscreen when the wipers are off, but that's exactly what the UI does.