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Windshield wipers are horrible, and arguably dangerous

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The sensors on the Model 3 is terrible. The auto rain-sensor wipers on my 2003 BMW X5 is 100x better. I have had multiple updates since September and it has not gotten any better at all. It is almost tolerable during the daylight, but it just doesn't work at all at night.

I also have the wipers go crazy right when I get into the car and won't turn off until I start driving away.
I think the problem with the Model 3 is that is doesn't use sensors to detect the rain. What it uses is the front facing cameras. My experience is that it prioritizes the camera's visibility.
 
It's a curious human-interaction issue. It rains so infrequently here in California that I forget about pushing the left stalk for a quick wipe. Now that the rains have come I notice that I instinctively pull up on the right stalk like in my other cars, in an effort to engage the wipers while driving. Of course this is the control for putting the car in reverse, which the car wisely ignores at speed.

However the other day I was stopped in traffic and a sudden short blast of rain came down. I absent-mindedly pushed up the right stalk, immediately realized my error and fiddled with the screen to get the wipers going, forgetting that the car was now sitting in reverse! So when traffic started moving again I was in for a big surprise when I touched the accelerator! Luckily I realized what was happening in an instant and was able to shift to going forwards, but the car behind me must have been terrified for an instant. I now make a special effort to not touch that stalk for wipers but muscle memory is very hard to erase.

So I highly recommend that Tesla revert back to a traditional wiper stalk for convenience and safety reasons.

I had a somewhat similar incident about a month back or so now. I was in the far left lane with autosteer on, and glanced in the rear view to see the car behind me was pulling out of the way for an ambulance with lights and siren on (which I didn't hear over the stereo) coming up fast. I quickly flipped on the blinker to merge right into a closing gap and pulled the wheel right, which turned off autosteer but left me in TACC mode. Once in the lane, I was still moving forward and just wanted to stop to allow the ambulance to pass by. I hit the brakes and furiously slapped the right stalk up to cancel TACC. Once the ambulance passed, I hit the accelerator and felt the car going backwards, which is a really weird experience when you expect it to go forward. I braked, and confusedly looked at the screen to see if there was some error condition to explain what was going on. Someone behind me honked, I hit the accelerator again gingerly and ended up tapping the car behind me. I finally figured out that I was in reverse, got in drive, pulled over safely (along with the car behind me), we took a look at each other's cars and agreed that the minor paint transfer wasn't enough to bother calling anybody about. Going to go have it buffed out this coming Monday. Lesson learned.

In retrospect, I should have known that braking alone (or lightly tapping the stalk upward without the second click) would have turned off TACC (as well as autosteer), but in the scramble to get out of the way of an emergency vehicle you mostly go off instincts. I'd been driving the car for about 8 months at that point, so it can't be chalked up to total inexperience. You do need to be aware that there is the potential of changing gears on that stalk when you're stopped or at very low speed.
 
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The auto wipers on my car are essentially useless. They don't turn on until the windshield is completely covered in rain to the point that you can't see anything. So just use the manual wipers, right? Well there's no control. You have to fish around on the touch screen to find the setting.

Crappy auto-mode + terrible ergonomics on manual mode = seriously unfortunate combination.

Has anyone tried working with service to get their auto-wiper functionality working better? Or do they tell you there's nothing that can be done?

I love the car, but the wipers are garbage, making it annoying driving this car in the rain.
After dealing with the torrential rain that the Bay Area is currently receiving, I agree with 101% of the others, that the "Auto" wiper mode is far too SLOW and outright DANGEROUS to operate and wait for.
If anyone from Tesla Engineering is reading this, please add my vote to include a patch to "automatically" re-calibrate wiper sensitivity each to driver's personal use and preference, to "when" the driver presses the left stalk, based on exactly quantity of water, is on the windshield. Sounds easy enough to allow the car computer to readjust its windshield wiper factory setting, to meet each driver's preference. If Tesla, like all other luxury vehicle companies, can offer driver seat personally-programmed preset seat settings, one would think that as safety-focused as Tesla is, this auto-windshield-wiper safety issue would have been either addressed in its original engineering, or fixed by now, or sometime reeeal soon... Let's not wait for another highway windshield visibility-related fatality statistic to happen, or for Consumer Reports to nag Tesla, before taking action. Overall, still pretty happy with Tesla's vision and work.
 
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If you push the button on the left stalk the wipers will swipe and the controls for the speed will appear. With one quick tap you can choose the manual speed you want.

My wipers work okay. They are not perfect, but not as bad as other people report.
I too am not happy with how the auto works in heavy rain. And, I consider it dangerous to distract myself to switch to a manual wiper setting while driving, especially on a freeway. If there is a way to control the interval for auto, I'd certainly like to know about it.
 
+1 on the wiper control logic is horrible train.

To be clear, the wiper does a great job of clearing the window, I just cannot EVER get the speed to be appropriate for the situation.
The auto setting for me is the worst ever. A light drizzle starts, I turn on auto, and the wipers race back and forth at hyperspeed for about 15 seconds before calming down (on what is essentially a dry window after the first pass).

I also am not happy with the manual speed settings. There just isn't enough granularity. Most cars I've driven have 5 or more "clicks" on the stalk that allow for different speed settings. 3 isn't enough.

I now control wipers 100% manually, meaning I leave them OFF and push the stalk button EVERY TIME I want the wipers to move across the window. Ridiculous.
After dealing with the torrential rain that the Bay Area is currently receiving, I agree with 101% of the others, that the "Auto" wiper mode is far too SLOW and outright DANGEROUS to operate and wait for.
If anyone from Tesla Engineering is reading this, please add my vote to include a patch to "automatically" re-calibrate wiper sensitivity each to driver's personal use and preference, to "when" the driver presses the left stalk, based on exactly quantity of water, is on the windshield. Sounds easy enough to allow the car computer to readjust its windshield wiper factory setting, to meet each driver's preference. If Tesla, like all other luxury vehicle companies, can offer driver seat personally-programmed preset seat settings, one would think that as safety-focused as Tesla is, this auto-windshield-wiper safety issue would have been either addressed in its original engineering, or fixed by now, or sometime reeeal soon... Let's not wait for another highway windshield visibility-related fatality statistic to happen, or for Consumer Reports to nag Tesla, before taking action. Overall, still pretty happy with Tesla's vision and work.

Can’t agree enough! Everything that people having been saying here with the lousy auto wiper settings and even the maual delayed wiper settings are terrible to use. I have owned many other cars in my lifetime, none of them have given me so much grief. Wipers don’t work as expected. In fact, I’m often surprised by the lack of functionality while I’m busy dealing with driving on twisty, wet roads and pushing the 1-swipe wiper button. I feel very unsafe in these situations!
 
I agree with matto. Auto setting lacks sensiitivity and is dangerous so I never use it. Other car makers can do this so what's the problem?

Come on Tesla. You got so much right but the wipers could be much better.
Bottom line can we all agree that the wipers suck? Truly a well below average product compared to what other cars have offered for years. Truly disappointing. Actuall the most frustrating part of the driving experience which is a shame.
 
I learned how to use the manual wiper settings to go to “always wipe no delay” when there is enough rain to justify it.

Yeah.. would be nice if the sensing was a tad bit more aggressive.

But a higher priority imo is sentry mode and an in-cabin manual drunk release.
 
My auto wipers are also pretty terrible. Sometimes when I get into the car it will go into max speed mode with only a few drops on the windshield. When I'm driving, it has never wiped fast enough. It seems like the speed in auto mode is somewhere between the first and second manual setting - which is not enough in the rain. I always have to manually adjust the speed setting to 2 or 3.
The wiper takes a wet windshield and throws the water back on top, where it trickls down.
At low speeds, the wiper should run slow.
Above maybe 30mph, full speed, so the rain is pushed over the roof and off the car.
Model3
 
I have a treatment on the glass (think Rain-X on steroids) that does an awesome job of keeping water off of the windshield even in pretty heavy rains. :)
In California half thr rain is a heavy mist, which doesnt trigger Auto sweeps. Also, road oil buildup and car washing undoes coatings.
Tesla needs to test with different contamination levels. I would contribue by bringing my car to Fremont.
 
The auto wipers on my car are essentially useless. They don't turn on until the windshield is completely covered in rain to the point that you can't see anything. So just use the manual wipers, right? Well there's no control. You have to fish around on the touch screen to find the setting.

Crappy auto-mode + terrible ergonomics on manual mode = seriously unfortunate combination.

Has anyone tried working with service to get their auto-wiper functionality working better? Or do they tell you there's nothing that can be done?

I love the car, but the wipers are garbage, making it annoying driving this car in the rain.
Absolutely agree.
 
The auto wipers on my car are essentially useless. They don't turn on until the windshield is completely covered in rain to the point that you can't see anything. So just use the manual wipers, right? Well there's no control. You have to fish around on the touch screen to find the setting.

Crappy auto-mode + terrible ergonomics on manual mode = seriously unfortunate combination.

Has anyone tried working with service to get their auto-wiper functionality working better? Or do they tell you there's nothing that can be done?

I love the car, but the wipers are garbage, making it annoying driving this car in the rain.
I don't have any problems with mine, they work fine.
 
I find these posts interesting. This is a super common complaint but I rarely have a problem myself. When i do usually just a single manual wipe is enough. I wonder if the difference in complaint levels is due a wide variability in the calibration of the auto wiping per car, or just a wide variability in people's tolerance level? I know I tend to be ok with quite a bit of water on the windshield before it wipes, as my wife usually complains before I feel a need to have a clear windshield :) Probably because I'd rather have a bunch of water droplets then a streaky, chattery, annoying mess when it is just misting as it often does in Seattle.
 
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They used to work better, but now especially at night very poor. Maybe oil film? Maybe Tesla washer fluid was magic, using different now.
Need voice commands
Wiper off
Wiper auto
Wiper sensitivity higher
Wiper sensitivity lower
Wiper intermittent
Wiper normal
Wiper fast
 
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