Touch screen control for wipers is dangerous

[srs5694]

Capitalism my friend. Saving $1 per car per year is acceptable for the manufacture to pass the cost of totaling a car to a deer. If you don't like the wiper controls... hack it or buy another car. It is a free market.

I'll criticize the car if I want to. Note that I could criticize any car I've ever driven; no car is perfect. Discussing a car's weak points is fair game, and is part of capitalism, which is built on an assumption of perfect buyer knowledge about the products available on the market.

It may have changed, but AFAIK, there's no way to activate continuous wiper mode via the stalk, at least not in the Model 3 (this is the Model 3 forum); the stalk button will activate either a single wipe or a series of a few wipes in conjunction with a spray of wiper fluid

You can lightly press the button (not all the way) and hold it there for a few seconds and it will continue to swipe.

That's good to know, but it sounds like it's just turning from off to on. Unless doing that repeatedly will change the speed of the wiping action, it doesn't really help much. My own complaint isn't so much that it takes attention to turn on the wipers, but that it takes attention to change the wipers' speed. If that long-press will change the wipers' speed, then that's slightly helpful, although it's a rather awkward way to do it, since you'd need to cycle through four speeds (or five, if Auto is included) via a process that takes "a few seconds," by your description, for each change.

At this point, I'm wondering if there's something wrong with your vehicle? Have you done anything to the windshield?

Can you sit in your car on a dry day with it on and have someone spray the windshield with a hose? Wipers should start right up

It responds to rain, but not consistently. It does fine with what I'd consider "average" rain -- but when the rain is in the form of light mist or if it's unusually heavy, the car is slow to respond to the rain. I've done nothing unusual to my windshield. Lots of other people report the same types of problems, so it's unlikely to be a hardware fault in my car. It's more likely that people are encountering different types of rain based on where they live and/or that people have different preferences for how often the Auto wipers wipe.

 

[Sans-gas]

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.

I concur that auto-wipers have improved in the last couple months. I also think voice activation would be useful for wipers AND highbeams.

 

[roblab]

Do people often tell you to your face that you're kind of a dick?

Do people tell you to your face that you complain about stuff that works just fine?

And, for the record, my brother is kind of a Dick, being named Richard. I am kind of a Bob. Calling people dicks would be something Freud might enjoy working with, but otherwise, it's just low class. I wish people had the vocabulary and communication skills to say what they mean, but often, I'm not sure they even know that.

 

[Gondi63]

Do people tell you to your face that you complain about stuff that works just fine?

And, for the record, my brother is kind of a Dick, being named Richard. I am kind of a Bob. Calling people dicks would be something Freud might enjoy working with, but otherwise, it's just low class. I wish people had the vocabulary and communication skills to say what they mean, but often, I'm not sure they even know that.

Alright Rob, try to keep up.

This is a forum for amateur Tesla enthusiasts. None of us are experts and even if we were, things change enough that no one really knows what's going on.

He made a post in the forum about auto wipers not working up to his standards. Various people have suggested trying x or y including me telling him to half-press the wiper button to get on-demand wipers.

He's tried zero of these suggestions and prefers to yell and shake his fist about how terrifyingly dangerous it is to touch a screen in a car that he bought knowing full well that 95% of the controls were through that screen.

People like that are dicks, Rob.

 

[Dana1]

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?

I’m guessing you’re new to your car. Like any new car there’s an orientation period. I find the wipers easy to use. There are a couple of actions you can perform with the left hand stalk...your owners manual has good information on functionality.

 

[aronth5]

I agree with others that the wipers have finally improved with the recent updates. The most recent rain was very hard and I was surprised the wipers adjusted quickly and properly. That being said I would still like to see the suggestion already mentioned that when you press the stalk the wiper menu should stay available for 30-60 seconds to at least eliminate one touch screen press. Also adding voice commands for wipers would be a big help. "wipers #" where # represents the speed desired from 1-10 would be a nice addition. Or "wipers" voice command enables the left thumb wheel to adjust the wiper speed for say 10-20 seconds.

 

[nvx1977]

But then you're shooting out wiper fluid, yes?

Nope, I don't mean hold down past the detent. Just press the wiper button at the end of the stalk. If you let go, it wipes once. If you keep it held down, it continuously wipes.

 

[SwaggerWagon]

I’m guessing you’re new to your car. Like any new car there’s an orientation period. I find the wipers easy to use. There are a couple of actions you can perform with the left hand stalk...your owners manual has good information on functionality.

I’m guessing you’re new to driving, or at least driving in the rain. Like any kind of driving, there’s an orientation period. If you live someplace where you need to use the wipers more than 1x per month, wiper control on the screen sucks.

 

[SwaggerWagon]

Wipers certainly working much better with the latest software update. Even with the previous issues, I would call them “dangerous”

If it starts raining hard you simply hit the button on the stalk which brings up the wiper menu and hit the on button for the fastest rate. It takes about 1 SEC to do that. Not sure what all the fuss it about. Have to touch the screen for just about everything the car does in case anyone forgot.

Driving through 30 minutes of rain necessitates doing the action you mentioned about 40 times. That adds up to a lot of time messing with the screen. To touch the screen 40 times for any other control would take many hours of driving for audio, days of driving for temp, or months of driving for any of the other controls. That’s a lot of looking away from driving in a short time frame, when things are especially dangerous.

Also, if you’re on a phone call what you’ve stated doesn’t work. You have no access to wipers without swiping away the call. I drive about 800mi/week for work and I’m on the phone for about 700 of those miles. It is indeed a poor implementation. It all could be avoided if the auto setting worked, but it sucks butt.

 

[Leafdriver333]

my two most favorite buttons.
1. wiper button.
2. right scroll 'left/right' for sabotaging other racers on buggy racing 2.

One of those two buttons will fail before anything else on my car from overuse.

 

[MrAliG]

I think a lot of confusion re the wipers is due to people living in different places.

I have read people say that the auto wiping had improved and turned it back on, only to have to turn it off again in minutes. I have a model X where we can choose between auto wiping and intermittent wiping.

The auto just does not work where I live in Scotland. I think people have the same issue in the pacific Northwest.

We very very rarely get the kind of hard rain that you get in Florida. That is a few times a year occurrence. A high percentage of the rain here is drizzle/mist. When it rains like this the auto wiping doesn't sense it, every time I have had an update I have turned it on in the rain to see what happens. If I am on a quiet road I let the rain build up until it wipes. It does not wipe until the windscreen is entirely obscured by water. So I have to constantly use the single wipe or just go back to the constant intermittent setting which is not ideal but better than the auto setting.

Interestingly people also mention it is affected by how light it is and doesn't work in the dark. It is obviously a lot darker here than in Florida/Texas/California. Maybe the algorithm needs a certain amount of light to be passing through the rain drops to see them. Plenty of places just aren't that bright. Indeed, I also notice that the auto lights are switched on an enormous percentage of the time. People flash their lights at me for having my headlights on in daylight. I can only think that whoever calibrated the system calibrated it for California and not for places with less sunlight.

 

[alseTrick]

But then you're shooting out wiper fluid, yes?

Yes. Not an acceptable alternative. Especially when you'd have your one hand perma-occupied while driving in less than ideal weather conditions.

 

[Dana1]

Driving through 30 minutes of rain necessitates doing the action you mentioned about 40 times. That adds up to a lot of time messing with the screen. To touch the screen 40 times for any other control would take many hours of driving for audio, days of driving for temp, or months of driving for any of the other controls. That’s a lot of looking away from driving in a short time frame, when things are especially dangerous.

Also, if you’re on a phone call what you’ve stated doesn’t work. You have no access to wipers without swiping away the call. I drive about 800mi/week for work and I’m on the phone for about 700 of those miles. It is indeed a poor implementation. It all could be avoided if the auto setting worked, but it sucks butt.

Driving through 30 minutes of rain necessitates doing the action you mentioned about 40 times. That adds up to a lot of time messing with the screen. To touch the screen 40 times for any other control would take many hours of driving for audio, days of driving for temp, or months of driving for any of the other controls. That’s a lot of looking away from driving in a short time frame, when things are especially dangerous.

Also, if you’re on a phone call what you’ve stated doesn’t work. You have no access to wipers without swiping away the call. I drive about 800mi/week for work and I’m on the phone for about 700 of those miles. It is indeed a poor implementation. It all could be avoided if the auto setting worked, but it sucks butt.

so...talking on your phone is fine in these dangerous conditions but the wiper controls are giving you heartburn, LMFAO. You’ll be fine.

 

[AKinDC]

Driving through 30 minutes of rain necessitates doing the action you mentioned about 40 times. That adds up to a lot of time messing with the screen. To touch the screen 40 times for any other control would take many hours of driving for audio, days of driving for temp, or months of driving for any of the other controls. That’s a lot of looking away from driving in a short time frame, when things are especially dangerous.

Also, if you’re on a phone call what you’ve stated doesn’t work. You have no access to wipers without swiping away the call. I drive about 800mi/week for work and I’m on the phone for about 700 of those miles. It is indeed a poor implementation. It all could be avoided if the auto setting worked, but it sucks butt.

I don't understand the 40 times. You hit it once, put it on slow or intermittent, and that's that.
If you can't access the wiper on screen when you have a call, that's a legitimate complaint, and should be fixed.

 

[travis1906]

Driving through 30 minutes of rain necessitates doing the action you mentioned about 40 times. That adds up to a lot of time messing with the screen. To touch the screen 40 times for any other control would take many hours of driving for audio, days of driving for temp, or months of driving for any of the other controls. That’s a lot of looking away from driving in a short time frame, when things are especially dangerous.

Also, if you’re on a phone call what you’ve stated doesn’t work. You have no access to wipers without swiping away the call. I drive about 800mi/week for work and I’m on the phone for about 700 of those miles. It is indeed a poor implementation. It all could be avoided if the auto setting worked, but it sucks butt.

I think we can agree the wiper function could be improved. Fine, but to say you would have to perform the above action 40 times?

If it all of a sudden starts pouring down cats and dogs you would perform that function ONCE. You would tap the button which brings up the wiper function and then tap the 3rd option which turns on the wipers as gas as they can go. Leave it on u til the storm passes or you pass through the storm.

Done. Again, I agree the wiper function can be improved but we are making way more of this that it is.

 

[travis1906]

*as FAST as they can go.

 

[p-f-g]

...and I’m on the phone for about 700 of those miles.

This is the dangerous part, not the wipers.

 

[alseTrick]

So driving into work today it was raining. And I think my auto wipers were much better. Not quite as often as I can prefer but much more frequent than I recall.

The only thing is, I'm still on the same firmware; the very outdated 2019.12.1.2. So that makes no sense.

 

[Dave Mac]

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.

Weird. My experience is 180º different. Auto wipers almost always meet my needs. Occasionally press the stalk for an extra wipe.

 

[AKinDC]

Just drove it in the light rain yesterday.
The intermittent wipers consistently went on about 5 seconds after I would have turned them on manually.
Just enough of a delay to be annoying, without it being a real problem.