Windshield wipers are horrible, and arguably dangerous

[zhu-]

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.

Just had a mobile ranger come out last week and he said if there's an issue with the sensor they'll have to replace the entire windshield because it's permanently glued on.

 

[scott8659]

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a fix. This has been an issue with Tesla vehicles since they decided to ditch the actual rain sensor every other car uses. It’s been over 2 years and they still suck. Classic example of over-engineering. As others have pointed out this is compounded on the 3 due to the poor ergonomics of the controls. Even using the single press shortcut requires taking your eyes of the road to make a change.

 

[SalisburySam]

Same experience as @KenF: Auto wipers work pretty well for me but only during daylight. At night, I have to revert to one of the Manual settings. Happened again last night in a 60-mile drive with moderate drizzle. Wipers in Auto didn’t come on at all. Use first and second Manual settings but from time to time tried Auto again. Still nothing. I submitted a vocal bug report each time. I’m on 50.6 and windshield was clean except for the rain.

 

[F_T_K]

I'm not a fan of the wipers on my Model 3. During our last couple snowfalls, the wipers would get caked with ice after 10 - 15 minutes of driving.

The windshield glass goes down several inches below the dash. So the wipers sweep water/snow from the warm glass (where the defroster hits) onto the cold glass below, then it freezes up. I'm going to go through gallons of windshield washer fluid at this rate, just trying to keep the ice off the wipers.

 

[Electroman]

Wipers are very slow in the Auto setting. What I do is, press the left stalk to get one wipe and that also bring the wiper menu and I choose manual I or II.

It is dangerous is a little dramatic.

 

[chronopc]

It is dangerous is a little dramatic.

I agree. The word I would use is annoying rather than dangerous.

 

[AmateurX]

If you could somehow bias the sensitivity in Auto, I'd be happy.

The wiper algorithm is terrible as is... it's either too fast or too slow, and the manual modes don't seem like they're speed sensitive (e.g. they appear to just wipe every X secs). It is completely incapable of handling spray from the car ahead, so instead of driving, I'm driving and periodically pushing the left wiper button.

This is exactly what I was thinking: if I could make it more sensitive by a couple of "steps" I bet I could get the setting to where I like it.

Typically I leave them in the OFF position and use the mist button when I need them in light rain/mist situations. When it's raining, I leave it Auto and push the mist button all the time. Every once in a while I feel like the system is learning how often it should wipe by how often I push the button, but that's probably just a placebo effect.

There are times when the wipers go full-on crazy when there's no rain at all. Then I just say a few cuss words and turn them off.

 

[SigNC]

two things:
1) it still sucks at night
2) there is no startup algorithm to say "oh the car just started i probably can't see because rain has accumulated, let me wipe once and then figure out what speed I need" it just goes wide ass open for about 5 - 10 seconds.

 

[mike123abc]

The responsiveness needs to have a user adjust. But, I have found that the wipers are really marginal when they are working at the correct speed.

 

[alee]

It is dangerous is a little dramatic.

If the wiper control was on a physical stalk, I'd revise my opinion to be simply "annoying". Today, it's press a button to bring up a menu of wiper speeds, take your eyes off the road to hit an option, and hope it gives you the speed you want. There is no world where that's ok. esp. at highway speeds. Get it wrong, and you risk not seeing.

I'm sticking with dangerous.

 

[Need]

I think someone suggested (in a different thread) using the single swipe/washer fluid button to control speed. Forgot the exact combo, but I think it was double tap once to turn on wipers to (slowest), double tap again (next speed), etc... and single tap (if wiper is on) to stop. Maybe triple taps to turn on wiper and set to Auto; single tap to stop. I thought that was really smart and intuitive and only require a software update.

 

[chronopc]

I think someone suggested (in a different thread) using the single swipe/washer fluid button to control speed. Forgot the exact combo, but I think it was double tap once to turn on wipers to (slowest), double tap again (next speed), etc... and single tap (if wiper is on) to stop. Maybe triple taps to turn on wiper and set to Auto; single tap to stop. I thought that was really smart and intuitive and only require a software update.

Would be nice to control the speed of the wipers with voice commands too.

 

[nvx1977]

If the wiper control was on a physical stalk, I'd revise my opinion to be simply "annoying". Today, it's press a button to bring up a menu of wiper speeds, take your eyes off the road to hit an option, and hope it gives you the speed you want. There is no world where that's ok. esp. at highway speeds. Get it wrong, and you risk not seeing.

I'm sticking with dangerous.

Just to set things straight for people who don't yet own a Model 3, the wiper control IS on a physical stalk, and that button press does more than just bring up the wiper menu - it actually wipes the windshield. Pushing to the 2nd detent triggers wiper fluid and wipes.

so you've never taken your eyes off the road at highway speeds to check your blind spot or look into the rear mirror, both of which are a longer glance away than your center screen? Would you consider that dangerous? How about changing a radio preset or toggling the A/C? Or putting in a CD or tape into the slot? Or use the cigarette lighter to light a smoke? How did we manage all this eyes-off-the-road activity in the past without crashing all over the place?

The manual button on the stalk is exactly for those situations where you're in a tricky situation and you MUST have your eyes on the road. If there's no tricky situation to navigate, I challenge anyone to tell me they can't afford to ever take their eyes off the road. You've done this millions of times in regular ICE cars without realizing it.

For me, dangerous wipers are ones that do a poor job clearing the obstruction. And in this thread, I see 2 distinct complaints with merit:

1) Auto-wipe setting is erratic and not reliable
2) The performance of the blades is subpar

I've dealt with #1 via adaptation (reliance on manual button and interval setting). It's not ideal, but it's out of mind for me. #2 is likely fixable like it is for S/X with a higher-end Bosch (Icon) blade. I haven't tried the replacement on the 3, but I can attest that the Bosch Icons perform SO much better than the stock Bosch on Model S. The current stock 3 blades can't handle even the smallest amount of snow without streaking and clumping. However the stock 3 blades work just fine clearing rain, from a blade-to-glass perspective.

 

[super20g]

It is dangerous is a little dramatic.

I was thinking dangerous the other night when it was foggy and visibility was already not great. Then throw in heavy misting and the auto wipers were absolutely dangerous. Of course you could switch to a manual setting and be fine... But the auto wiper are crap at times...

 

[sharkless]

In my experience, the auto wipers work pretty well. For me, they're actually pretty sensitive and trigger almost too easily with a little Florida humidity condensing on the glass in the morning. Of course, this doesn't hurt anything except the cleanliness of the glass.

Honestly though, I choose to leave the wipers off 99% of the time. 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. For extremely heavy rain, I'll turn them on manually. For medium rain/light rain at higher speeds (30+), the water runs right off the glass so well that I don't need the wipers. For medium/light rain at low speeds/stops, I just click the button on the end of the turn signal as needed.

I agree that the word "dangerous" might be a bit much to describe this situation. At any time you can choose when to engage the wipers with a simple touch on the main screen. It's only dangerous if you drive in the rain without knowing how to operate the wipers in your car, which is a condition that applies to all vehicles. First-world problems.

 

[UngaBunga1989]

Mine have worked perfectly day and night and in rain of varied intensity. Sorry that some of you have had issues with it...

 

[Captbarret]

I haven't recieved any software updates on the wipers that i know of. Would I been notified. But I do concur that the auto mode sucks

 

[almonroth]

Adding to the chorus. This is the one feature on my Model 3 that makes me mad. With all the amazing tech in this mobile computer on wheels, somehow the auto wipers suck this badly. I think because of all the tech, it stands out as even more annoying. Eng has solved problems far more complicated than this, so hopefully they can turn their attention to the wipers soon? I’d take better sensitivity, but I’d much prefer it learned my preferred timing so it was tailored to me. That would be a rad feature.

 

[tornado]

My third Tesla, and agree - the auto-sensing on all three have sucked. Specifically agree about the 3's being worse since you have to take your eyes off everything to change it up. I too am in the Pac NW and with the intermittent rain we get here, it's a real PITA that the auto-sensing doesn't work better. The other "steps" for the wipers don't have enough gradients as others have mentioned. Why is this such rocket science for Tesla to figure out?

 

[MongMong]

Concur. They are terrible even though they got better in recent updates. Mine chatter like crazy now and go into hyper insane embarrassing mode frequently. End up having to use manual swipes with the button.

Mine used to be like this, but somehow stopped. I'm glad it has. It's still way too non-sensitive, I don't mind it as much but my wife cannot stand it. She wants it super sensitive as she finds it hard to drive in the night when it's raining. Really hoping we can configure the sensitivity of the auto wipers in the settings in a future OTA update.