Touch screen control for wipers is dangerous

[Zooner]

Wiper controls sucks. Anyone else frustrated and feel this is a significant safety issue? Putting aside that
In heavy traffic, rain, and bumpy state of our roads makes taking eyes off the road to navigate touch screen is very dangerous. No different than doing something on your phone in such a situation.
The fix is easy: When the button for single wipe is clicked, the wiper controls pop on screen for a few moments. Why not during that time enable the left scroll wheel to be used for wiper speed/mode setting?

 

[kirbo20]

Auto works pretty good these days. I do use the button to bring up the controls when needed. Voice activation would work well here. Maybe some day.

 

[ewoodrick]

My auto works really well for me as well these days.

As with anything, give it more than a day to get used to how it works. Once you figure it out, it's pretty easy to swipe and change, of course, you can also bring up the screen by pressing in on the stalk

 

[alseTrick]

Wiper controls sucks. Anyone else frustrated and feel this is a significant safety issue? Putting aside that
In heavy traffic, rain, and bumpy state of our roads makes taking eyes off the road to navigate touch screen is very dangerous. No different than doing something on your phone in such a situation.

It's certainly worse (ie, more dangerous) than the traditional wiper stalk controls that most cars have.

 

[smogne41]

Yes, probably the thing I dislike the most about the car (which I otherwise love). I am baffled how anybody thought this was acceptable: the UI/UX designers at Tesla, the executives at Tesla, or the bureaucrats in any of the regulatory agencies around the world who have certified this car for sale. I still bought the car knowing full well about the wiper controls of course, but they are still super dumb (and dangerous).

I would love an aftermarket physical rotary switch. Get to it CAN bus hackers!

 

[ry-ballz]

I think it's ok but not great.
I'd prefer a double tap for slow speed constant on, and then you can click the faster on the screen if you need it.

 

[puckpurnell]

A G R E E ! The design of the wiper control cannot be changed soon enough.

 

[Chickenlittle]

Wiper controls sucks. Anyone else frustrated and feel this is a significant safety issue? Putting aside that
In heavy traffic, rain, and bumpy state of our roads makes taking eyes off the road to navigate touch screen is very dangerous. No different than doing something on your phone in such a situation.
The fix is easy: When the button for single wipe is clicked, the wiper controls pop on screen for a few moments. Why not during that time enable the left scroll wheel to be used for wiper speed/mode setting?

No

 

[Gondi63]

Maybe we have different rain than you guys, but autowipers have worked great for me Tap the button for a quick swipe, hold for a rinse or just let auto do its thing.

 

[Casmium]

I find it's all dependent on the lighting, if you have street lights, or on coming headlights from other cars then the wipers work great. If you are in a generally dark area auto wipers fall asleep. would be nice if double clicking on the wiper button cycled through the settings.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I don't know what universe you guys are living in that say the auto wipers work fairly well. They simply don't. They do not wipe fast enough in nearly any situation, and especially when the raindrops are small/drizzly/misty. They will leave you blind by failing to wipe the windshield.

I've tried them frequently in every software version from March 2018 to current, and I always select a manual setting within a few minutes because I have to constantly press the button on the end of the stalk to get an additional wipe.

Then, inexplicably, you go into a store while it's raining, come back out and get in the car, and as soon as you power it up they start wiping on maximum speed for no reason even though it's not raining hard.

The auto algorithm is nearly completely useless.

 

[MrBadger]

The auto on our 12+ year old VW work great. The occasional spurious wipe, or a very occasional slight adjustment to the sensitivity setting, but otherwise 99.9% perfect. Likewise of our previous BMW - they were good enough for us to add the auto wipers on to the VW.

Shame its not so great on M3, especially considering how long we have been use to becoming reliant on them and how lacking manual operation appears to be - waiting for delivery so need to go on other peoples words. As someone who, as a passenger, had a very near miss when an on coming car suddenly drenched our windscreen with water and driver could not find the windscreen wipers to clear the screen (it was about an hour after picking up a hire car), I can honestly say that having to go fumbling for windscreen wiper controls is a back step into driver safety.

Please someone tell me that they at least have flick wipe on a steering wheel stork?

Interestingly, at least for me, I was once told that auto wipers came with the auto dim rear view mirror option because they both relied on the rear view light sensor that rear view mirror needs to know when to dip the mirror- as well as the auto wipers needing the windscreen sensor. Not sure if true or why auto windscreen needs rear view sensor, but we have seen evidence of this from time to time - we think it may be to do with when the car is going under objects; trees, tunnels etc.

 

[Rockster]

The automatic wipers are fine for me 99% of the time, even during the sudden and intense downpours we get in Texas. The other 1% of the time it’s not a problem to just push the button at the end of the stalk for a supplemental swipe.

 

[srs5694]

Wiper controls sucks. Anyone else frustrated and feel this is a significant safety issue? Putting aside that
In heavy traffic, rain, and bumpy state of our roads makes taking eyes off the road to navigate touch screen is very dangerous. No different than doing something on your phone in such a situation.

My $0.02: The Auto setting produces reasonable behavior about 40% of the time. For another 50% of the time, it produces wiping action that's too slow, sometimes (but not often) to the point that visibility is impaired enough that I'd consider it dangerous; and the remaining 10% of the time (usually when first starting up), it's too fast.

The fix is easy: When the button for single wipe is clicked, the wiper controls pop on screen for a few moments. Why not during that time enable the left scroll wheel to be used for wiper speed/mode setting?

I think this is an excellent idea. Posting it here won't do any good, though. I've seen reports that people Tweeting ideas like this at Elon Musk seems to be the most likely way to get such features implemented. (I don't have a Twitter account, so I can't do it myself -- at least, not without opening a Twitter account, which I refuse to do.) Failing that, filing an official bug report might get some action.

 

[srs5694]

Please someone tell me that they at least have flick wipe on a steering wheel stork?

Yes, via the button at the end of the left-hand stalk. (That's for the left-hand-drive US version of the car. I don't know if there might be changes for the right-hand-drive UK version.) A light push activates a single swipe and a harder push also causes windshield wiper fluid to be released.

If you've ordered a Model 3, or want to read up on its features, you can download the manual here:

https://www.tesla.com/content/dam/tesla/Ownership/Own/Model 3 Owners Manual.pdf

That's the North American version. I don't know if the UK version is available online, or how significant the differences would be.

 

[5_+JqckQttqck]

Left click and tap big blue button for Wiper On... I don't know what kind of rain you're getting. Setting I or II usually is plenty enough for where I live.

 

[nvx1977]

you can also hold down the button at the end of the stalk for continuous wipe.

auto setting has been working really well for me in the last few months or so. I've never understood the "safety issue" argument. You can wipe with the stalk at any time without taking your eyes off the road or even your left hand off the wheel.

 

[srs5694]

I've never understood the "safety issue" argument. You can wipe with the stalk at any time without taking your eyes off the road or even your left hand off the wheel.

This isn't about activating single wipes; it's about rain that suddenly starts coming down at a much heavier rate than it had been. When this happens, you want to increase the rate of wiping, but if either the Auto setting is not increasing the wiping level enough or it's set to a fixed-rate level, you'll have a problem. At this point, you need to take your eyes off the road and one hand off the wheel, in a situation in which your ability to see the road is already impaired by a big increase in rainfall, in order to adjust the wiper speed. It may only take a second or two, but I've been in situations in which this has been a bit unnerving, and if you got unlucky (another car doing something unexpected, a deer jumping into the road, etc.) an accident could result.

Most other cars I've driven have physical wiper controls on a steering-wheel stalk, so they can be operated entirely by feel. This is significantly safer than the Model 3's design in a scenario like the one I've just outlined.

 

[jdicecco]

Well the model 3 does not work like that. The way it works is you press the stalk for a single wipe or continuous, and then if you like, you can easily press a manual selection. That's how the car works.

 

[alseTrick]

Then, inexplicably, you go into a store while it's raining, come back out and get in the car, and as soon as you power it up they start wiping on maximum speed for no reason even though it's not raining hard.

THAT'S THE BEST LOL

It won't auto-swipe no matter how obstructed the view is while driving. But it can not have rained for 20 minutes, and yet, as soon as i get in the car the residual moisture on the windshield sends the blades into a manic frenzy.

Makes zero sense.