Things you may not have discovered about your Model S?!

[jerry33]

Lights are on Auto, but not on, so only DRLs are lit. Then, it starts raining and you turn wipers on to auto and bang: headlights turn on too the same instant.

There might be a dusk threshold, but it has been repeatable for me.

This is because California has a law that lights must be on if wipers are on.

 

[RainmakerJL]

And New York too. Is the tip for windows on this list. If you hold the roof of fob down all windows will roll down. You can't roll them back up without going i. Car but it does help when your handles won't present!

 

[ribsandbbqbeef]

This is because California has a law that lights must be on if wipers are on.

I wish Californians would actually obey the law. Most of the time, at least 1/3 - 1/2 the people on the road don't turn on their headlights when it rains....and to what? Save a few pennies of electricity on their 12V at the expense of collision risk?

 

[L@urens]

This is because California has a law that lights must be on if wipers are on.

Aha, never knew this nor seen this on a EU car. Nice feature actually.

I tested they also turn off after 1-2mins when you turn the wipers off. Slightly slower than when entering/leaving a tunnel.

 

[mknox]

This is because California has a law that lights must be on if wipers are on.

Lots of jurisdictions do. We have a similar requirement in Ontario, Canada. FWIW, the last few cars I've owned with automatic headlights have always turned on the full lighting system whenever the wipers are active... even in broad daylight. The exception is if you are just using the washers without actually turning the wipers on.

 

[Gear]

This is because California has a law that lights must be on if wipers are on.

I think a lot (if not most) states have that law actually. I remember it being the law in Minnesota when I lived there. It's kind of nice for it to be automatic, as a lot of idiots on the road in CA don't turn their lights on when it's raining.

- - - Updated - - -

I wish Californians would actually obey the law. Most of the time, at least 1/3 - 1/2 the people on the road don't turn on their headlights when it rains....and to what? Save a few pennies of electricity on their 12V at the expense of collision risk?

I think it's actually ignorance or complacency. Trying to save a few pennies on electricity would require them to actually think.

 

[Mario Kadastik]

Something I didn't know, but found out from roadside assistance. If you are charging and for what ever reason the charge station loses power it seems the Model S shows the unlock button for about 30s, then it disappears and the car thinks the chargeport is closed. Clicking on open chargeport will not actually unlock the locking pin so there are two ways to unlock. Either you re-enable power to the charging station (not necessarily possible) or you double click your keyfob. As it unlocks the car it also unlocks the locking pin. I needed that as there was no way to get the charge station back on power on Saturday so that was a useful piece of knowledge I didn't know before.

 

[jerry33]

Something I didn't know, but found out from roadside assistance. If you are charging and for what ever reason the charge station loses power it seems the Model S shows the unlock button for about 30s, then it disappears and the car thinks the chargeport is closed. Clicking on open chargeport will not actually unlock the locking pin so there are two ways to unlock. Either you re-enable power to the charging station (not necessarily possible) or you double click your keyfob. As it unlocks the car it also unlocks the locking pin. I needed that as there was no way to get the charge station back on power on Saturday so that was a useful piece of knowledge I didn't know before.

You could also unlock with the App.

 

[Mario Kadastik]

You could also unlock with the App.

Not the chargeport. It only lists open, not unlock if I remember right without power in the cable.

 

[jerry33]

Not the chargeport. It only lists open, not unlock if I remember right without power in the cable.

You're right about that. I had a situation where the system was confused about when the charge port door was open. Using the App to unlock the car allowed the button on the UMC to work.

 

[Kraken]

When in a tunnel, the nav screen shows it (just like it differentiates between day and night scenery), and it also says how much tunnel is left.

 

[ImperialG]

When in a tunnel, the nav screen shows it (just like it differentiates between day and night scenery), and it also says how much tunnel is left.

Never noticed this!! Now I'm tempted to take a long drive to a tunnel just to test this out!

 

[Kraken]

Note that you have to be actively using the navigation (it comes on on the dash, not the 17")

 

[InTheShadows]

I didn't see this one here before. I just noticed that the first tap on the defroster turns on the ac defrost and a double tap turns on max defrost with high heat and probably the ac for dehumidification. It cleared our fogging windows (4 people, 3 just had showers) in seconds with the max defrost setting.

 

[mknox]

(4 people, 3 just had showers)

I don't know why, but that made me laugh. I'm envisioning 3 people soaking wet with towels around them in the back seat!

 

[InTheShadows]

Haha, nope, my wife and daughter both with shoulder length wet hair makes any car fog up in the winter though.

 

[Doug_G]

The headlights turn on if you turn on the wipers... but if intermittent / rain sensing mode is active, they turn off if the wipers don't actuate for a couple of minutes. This resulted in my headlights turning on and off repeatedly today while I was driving in very light snow. After a while I noticed this and manually turned on the headlights.

Oh, and if you manually pulse the wipers the headlights do not turn on.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Aha! Doug_G, you may have solved the riddle. Cross-posted here:

Rain-sensing wipers driving me nuts! - Page 4

 

[scaesare]

I realized this the other day, and don't recall seeing it mentioned here:

The volume for your phone (via Bluetooth) is separate from your media playback. That is if you crank it up to 9 to hear your caller, then when you end your call and go back to the radio, it will drop back to 5 (or whatever you had it set at previously) so you don't blow your eardrums out.

 

[mknox]

The headlights turn on if you turn on the wipers... but if intermittent / rain sensing mode is active, they turn off if the wipers don't actuate for a couple of minutes. This resulted in my headlights turning on and off repeatedly today while I was driving in very light snow. After a while I noticed this and manually turned on the headlights.

Oh, and if you manually pulse the wipers the headlights do not turn on.

This is exactly how they worked on my last car as well, except that they didn't turn on until the rain sensing wipers gave a certain number of wipes in a certain time frame.