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Windshield wipers are horrible, and arguably dangerous

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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.
I have a similar issue with my 2019 Model 3. Even on the highway with consistent rain and steady rain the wipers don’t have a consistent swiping rate. They behave erratically, sometimes too fast, too slow or just right, alternating with no specific intervals. I was hoping someone would have provided a split based on their experience.
 
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I have a similar issue with my 2019 Model 3. Even on the highway with consistent rain and steady rain the wipers don’t have a consistent swiping rate. They behave erratically, sometimes too fast, too slow or just right, alternating with no specific intervals. I was hoping someone would have provided a split based on their experience.
Mine do the same, they work at full speed when there is no reason for that, and I look like some brain dead person with full speed wipers at light rain. And when I need them at full speed during heavy rain they dont run as fast. Crazy...They even run at full speed at traffic lights sometimes, without enough water on a windshield they kind of scratching the glass and shaking the car.
 
I have a similar issue with my 2019 Model 3. Even on the highway with consistent rain and steady rain the wipers don’t have a consistent swiping rate. They behave erratically, sometimes too fast, too slow or just right, alternating with no specific intervals. I was hoping someone would have provided a split based on their experience.

That's how auto wipers work. These are no better -- and importantly, no worse -- than my prior Cadillac's rain-sensing wipers. Those were introduced in 1996.

If you take the Tesla wipers off automatic mode and put them in a set speed (low/medium/high) they should be perfectly consistent.
Otherwise, yes - auto wipers are just that; they come on when they sense the windshield needs wiping. Sometimes it nails it, sometimes not.
 
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That's how auto wipers work. These are no better -- and importantly, no worse -- than my prior Cadillac's rain-sensing wipers. Those were introduced in 1996.

I can assure you that other auto wipers are much better than that. I've had a few that were consistent and reliable.
 
Every software update brings either a little better, or more frequently it seems, a little worse function from the camera-based auto wipe feature. I have had rain sensing wipers on other cars that worked flawlessly. This camera-based system is simply a fail. It’s just never right.

one thing I have noticed is that the way the wind flows over the hood and windshield crates an area of less rain/spray on the upper central part of the windshield, where the camera is. maybe it gets inconsistent water there. I don’t know. But even when driving very slow in a downpour, it is not wiping consistently or correctly for the amount of rain. I am always either annoyed that it goes too fast, or hitting the stalk button to get extra wipes because it is going too slow. And it’s always erratic.

Love Tesla, Love my car, but there is no rational argument to be made in favor of this system over the alternative rain sensing systems that work great, and have been around for years..
 
Tried them for the first time yesterday. Auto is not usable.

Manually setting them by pushing the button on the stalk and selecting the speed on the screen is fine.

My 2010 Mazda 3 had sucky electronics in virtually every area. Some of the worst car electronics. But the rain sensing wipers were still better than this.
 
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Mine work decently enough, not perfectly but overall as good or better as the ones on my 2016 BMW. One thing that the BMW had which Tesla does not is the ability to adjust the auto rate up or down relative to what it decides to do. That helped me work around the weaknesses in the BMW system.
 
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Hey guys, is there a trick to turn off the auto wiper feature without turning them on? The wiper menu is grayed out with wipers off, and don't want to mess with them with a dry windshield. I've read enough about how bad the auto feature is, so would like to turn it off now, rather than trying to mess with them on a new car when raining. I almost always use single wipes and intermittent intervals (live in the desert), except in a downpour, so glad to read that Tesla at least has the single wipe feature by pushing the left stalk button when in manual mode.
 
Hey guys, is there a trick to turn off the auto wiper feature without turning them on? The wiper menu is grayed out with wipers off, and don't want to mess with them with a dry windshield. I've read enough about how bad the auto feature is, so would like to turn it off now, rather than trying to mess with them on a new car when raining. I almost always use single wipes and intermittent intervals (live in the desert), except in a downpour, so glad to read that Tesla at least has the single wipe feature by pushing the left stalk button when in manual mode.

The wiper menu is a "card" on the bottom left side of the screen. Swipe to the right and you can access the menu without hitting the stalk button.
 
It barely rains where I'm at, at when it does, it's visually obvious water is falling from the sky and onto my windshield, so guess what I do?


I turn the wipers on! And guess what I do when it stops raining? I turn them off!


Auto wipers are turned off. The wipers work like any other wipers. Not sure what's horrible and dangerous about properly functioning wipers o_O
 
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It barely rains where I'm at, at when it does, it's visually obvious water is falling from the sky and onto my windshield, so guess what I do?


I turn the wipers on! And guess what I do when it stops raining? I turn them off!


Auto wipers are turned off. The wipers work like any other wipers. Not sure what's horrible and dangerous about properly functioning wipers o_O
You know, this is the same kind of nonsense I’ve seen in other posts on the forums. Someone brings up an issue, folks talk about it, then some joker insists nobody should care how well it works, simply because this one person doesn’t have use the feature. Here’s a suggestion, if you never use the auto wipe function, then how about just not commenting at all? No reason to try to dismiss other folks simply because they are talking about something you don’t use/need/want.

for those of us that DO use the feature, it is subpar.

Just keep moving, nothing to see here.