Tesla - where are my (HW2) auto rain sensing wipers?

[Scott-P]

This feature worked on the 2005 Mercedes C230K I sold when I bought my MS. It even worked pretty well (except that in really hot weather it would sometimes confuse dust for rain, but that's a different issue...). My 1997 SAAB had this also, although it was a bit more touchy. There are so many small features that could easily be addressed in the Firmware but which are being ignored in pursuit of the Holy Grail of EAP and FSD.

While I understand the desire to push the envelope and develop the cutting edge, it would go a LONG way to improve my happiness with day to day life with the car to make these (now relatively basic) features work. Rain sensors, a streaming service that actually works reliably, the ability to actually play an album from USB in the correct order, a marginally effective user interface for the XM radio...

My most recent Update (2017.34.2448cfc) actually BROKE more things than it fixed, and it did not improve AP functionality either. A little bit of actual diligence, attention to detail, and pre-release testing would be a most welcome addition to the process. My advice would be fix core functionality, and then use that stable platform as the base for further development.

I can wait on EAP and FSD for a few more months--it's already been almost a year... ;-)

BTW, I STILL love driving the car, and wouldn't trade it for anything. It amazes me and gives me great joy, except when it frustrates the bejeezus out of me.

 

[bob_p]

It's hard to come up with any explanation for the lack of automatic wipers at this stage, other than they blew it - and they've discovered it made be extremely difficult or impossible to use the AP2 cameras to detect precipitation - and use that data to turn on/off the wipers and adjust wiper speed.

Have you also noticed that when you run the wipers (even if it's not raining), the headlights come on? This is a pretty easy bug to fix. If the driver manually turns on the wipers, and the headlights were off before the wipers were turned on - then the headlights should stay off - or at least be delayed (turn them on if the wipers are on longer than just doing a cleaning pass after spraying the windshield with the washers).

 

[whitex]

3) Some engineer said "this hardware will work just fine for rain sense wipers", only to say "oops" after hardware rollout, and now they are struggling to fix the oops.

"Some Engineer" is Elon, and there are a lot bigger Elon oops the team is struggling to mitigate, auto-wipers is a low risk/priority oops.

 

[dknisely]

...

Have you also noticed that when you run the wipers (even if it's not raining), the headlights come on? This is a pretty easy bug to fix. If the driver manually turns on the wipers, and the headlights were off before the wipers were turned on - then the headlights should stay off - or at least be delayed (turn them on if the wipers are on longer than just doing a cleaning pass after spraying the windshield with the washers).

This is required by law in many states (I know it was in Illinois, and you WOULD get ticketed for it.

 

[philgrocks]

FWIW. Works perfectly on my 2013 MS, patiently waiting for feature to be activated on my 2017 MS.

I agree... worked great on my 2014 MS and today I got reminded this doesn't work on my 2017 :-(

 

[J1mbo]

I would be really interested to how it gos so far for you. I am thinking some legal action as well. Tired of this stupid rotating control. My son's 18$K Mazda has it and it is working well!

At least we all have a rotating control. Pity the poor M3 owner, who has to use the touchscreen to turn the wipers on.

FWIW, this guy actually prefers NOT to have auto wipers. And I agree with him. Do it right or don't bother.

 

[whitex]

Anyone thinks that a car can achieve FSD without auto-wipers? Or is this going to be the signature signal of Tesla's in FSD mode - wipers on max speed all the time?

 

[Skotty]

auto-wipers are an unnecessary novelty in my opinion. It's nice when they work the way you want them to, but adjusting wiper speed manually is so super easy that it's amazing anyone ever complains about not having it. "What? I have to reach out a little and move two of my fingers? Ridiculous!". Often the auto-wipers won't work the way you want them to anyway. It's like having a passenger control the wipers. The likelihood of them doing it the way you want it done is not very high.

 

[lux_cars]

auto-wipers are an unnecessary novelty in my opinion. It's nice when they work the way you want them to, but adjusting wiper speed manually is so super easy that it's amazing anyone ever complains about not having it. "What? I have to reach out a little and move two of my fingers? Ridiculous!". Often the auto-wipers won't work the way you want them to anyway. It's like having a passenger control the wipers. The likelihood of them doing it the way you want it done is not very high.

My auto wipers work perfectly fine and you’re not forced to constantly adjust them to changing rain intensity.

Skipping perfectly functional rain-sensors to go with camera reliance to save a few bucks doesn’t make much sense to me. Re-inventing the wheel when there is no guarantee it will work as well.

 

[thegruf]

not even mentioned in the features on the website now.

I guess they gave up.

With no E in EAP either, and no FSD features in sight, does seem Tesla hubris got the better of them ... again.
Sadly I can only expect the class actions to start rolling in.

 

[sxnahm]

After 4 years buying Tesla cars there is one thing I learned: the best way to avoid stress and disappointment when it comes to buying Tesla products is to never ever pay for anything Tesla says will come in the future. If you have no choice because the future feature was bundled with some option you do want, expect it will never get there while you own the car. If it comes, it will be a nice surprise, but until then, or if it never comes, you'll feel much better about your purchase."Expect the worse, hope for the best" approach unfortunately applies all to well to any Tesla vapourware features.

My company displays a "safe harbor" statement at the start of every presentation given by an employee. This is a version of the statement:

Salesforce.com Safe Habor Statement - salesforce.com Europe

The last sentence is the key one, which any consumer of any product or service needs to keep in mind: "Customers who purchase our services [products] should make the purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available."

Tesla certainly can do better in reminding its present and future customers of this.

 

[thegruf]

^not wrong, and I have said the same and believe exactly that myself

- except that Tesla can do better in not advertising future features at point of sale for which they can quite justifiably be accused of misleading the customer.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

AFAIK at least it is expected that Level 3 and beyond will require automated wipers, which is understandable given that the driver is supposed to be able to read a book etc.

So Tesla needs to solve this if AP2 is even going to go beyond Level 2. Hopefully it is just delayed.

 

[CK_Stuggi]

The cameras for AP2 functionality (including FSD) are depending on clear view. This is not possible in rain if there is no automatic wiper function. I've already been in a situation where the AP would loose track of lane markings until the next wipe happened (radar was still tracking the car in front).
This IS a safety relevant function for autopilot and it's outright ridiculous a car in this price segment doesn't have it.
Just imagine the car is supposed to cross the US autonomously - as long as the driver operates the wipers. Ridiculous.
Nuff said.

 

[Skotty]

My auto wipers work perfectly fine and you’re not forced to constantly adjust them to changing rain intensity.

Skipping perfectly functional rain-sensors to go with camera reliance to save a few bucks doesn’t make much sense to me. Re-inventing the wheel when there is no guarantee it will work as well.

I guess I would understand if we were living on Dagobah, but in most places the wipers aren't really needed enough to care that much about.

I did Tweet Elon to poke him about the wipers though. Asked him if he was eating some glass over it.

 

[Canuck]

My most recent Update (2017.34.2448cfc) actually BROKE more things than it fixed

Welcome to the club. When I got my vehicle new in early 2014 it streamed music much better, and you could actually pause and come back to your car to finish podcasts. Plus, the UI was much better. Then with every update it got worse. I don't have AP but they still put a toy car in our dash which makes no sense (except I can now see the brake lights taunting me when I don't press the brakes because regren activates them far too easily). The only thing that is better is auto opening and closing of the garage door but I'd trade that for version 6.2 back any day.

I've never been a fan of auto wipers in any vehicle. I live in a rain forest so we get all sorts of different rains, and lot of it at that. Give me a dial with intermittent settings, plus regular and fast speed and I'm happy. I'd change the rain sensor in my model S for a dial any day. I really don't like the fact that the wipers can only be accessed from the screen in the Model 3. I sure hope we can put that on the steering wheel dial control since I doubt the auto settings will work for me.

 

[Skotty]

Welcome to the club. When I got my vehicle new in early 2014 it streamed music much better, and you could actually pause and come back to your car to finish podcasts. Plus, the UI was much better. Then with every update it got worse. I don't have AP but they still put a toy car in our dash which makes no sense (except I can now see the brake lights taunting me when I don't press the brakes because regren activates them far too easily). The only thing that is better is auto opening and closing of the garage door but I'd trade that for version 6.2 back any day.

I've never been a fan of auto wipers in any vehicle. I live in a rain forest so we get all sorts of different rains, and lot of it at that. Give me a dial with intermittent settings, plus regular and fast speed and I'm happy. I'd change the rain sensor in my model S for a dial any day.

The downside of over the air updates. It's a mixed bag. Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good. Be nice if they would make it easier to control what version you run on, even allowing going back to older versions back to whatever your car first came with. They could do it, and it would be really cool if they did. Communications back with the mothership could make that more difficult to do though, as they have to keep older protocols working or older versions would start breaking.

 

[Skotty]

The downside of over the air updates. It's a mixed bag. Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good. Be nice if they would make it easier to control what version you run on, even allowing going back to older versions back to whatever your car first came with. They could do it, and it would be really cool if they did. Communications back with the mothership could make that more difficult to do though, as they have to keep older protocols working or older versions would start breaking.

On second thought, they probably won't ever consider this, as it exposes more liability. There are some features in older versions (like early AP2) that they would love to forget forever and would dread having around, even if by owner choice.

 

[BestRadar]

At least we all have a rotating control. Pity the poor M3 owner, who has to use the touchscreen to turn the wipers on.

FWIW, this guy actually prefers NOT to have auto wipers. And I agree with him. Do it right or don't bother.

Actually they added a rain sensor on the $35k M3, But left it out on their flagship model. You cant fix stupid. To save what $30 they removed the sensor that was originally on the MS and decided to make it part of the camera system instead and us HW2 lose another feature.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

@lunitiks Are we sure Model 3 has a rain sensor? I know Model 3 has something that could be a rain sensor, but the so does Model S/X AP2... (Which as discussed may only be a light and humidity sensor.)