Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Windshield Wipers

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I wonder if those who have autowipers kicking on with autopilot running, do you have a decent amount of pitting on the windshield glass? I wonder if the cameras think the windshield is dirty, from sunlight reflecting on it - and it's thinking it needs to wipe.
I haven't had any issues with the wipers running in autopilot, unless the windshield is dirty. I usually clean the windshield when I get home and the problem goes away.
When I had my '12 Mini Cooper, I went about 7 years with the original windshield before I finally decided to replace it. Prior to replacing it, I had so much pitting from all the rocks and sand - that driving in direct sunlight even when it was clean it was difficult to see out of.
My M3 didn't have the problem until they implemented the changes a couple of years after I bought it, but the windshield was in good shape.

My brand new MY started doing it on the ride home in perfect weather. It will only do one swipe here and there, but still. . . .

I didn't notice any common denominator with my M3 but the MY seems to do it more when the sun is low right in front of the car. Maybe.
 
That is precisely the reason why I use Aquapel. Not using the wipers -> no pitting.

In many States it's illegal not to turn of the wipers when it's raining. Many years ago I used RainX and never turned on my wipers unless it was a heavy downpour. I didn't know it was illegal to not use wipers in the rain, until I was stopped. Thankfully I was given just a warning.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: UncleCreepy
The poorly operating windshield wipers have been my biggest long-term issue with Tesla. First, on my Model 3, they were nearly useless. Now on my Model Y LR, they are worse. Often they turn on while driving into the sun without a cloud in the sky! And if the car is in auto drive the misbehaving wipers can't even be turned off. Sometimes cleaning the windshield at the sensor location seems to help but that is not a reliable cure. Now that our winter rain has started here in California, they are horrible, when it rains slightly they often go mad a shift themselves into high speed. Minutes later the rain picks up the wipers slow down. I usually avoid auto mode and use voice control to set the speed I want. Change wipers up one, or down one setting is pretty reliable. But I use auto drive often and the damnable things turn to auto mode, and the only way to fix is to end the auto drive mode and control the wipers with the screen or the voice commands. It seems also that their behavior changes from time to time, I assume from software updates, But the changes are unhelpful and make it worse. If Tesla would just remove the feature that links them to auto drive, and let control them manually, it would still irritate me that the feature doesn't work but it would be a bit less annoying.
 
If Tesla would just remove the feature that links them to auto drive, and let control them manually, it would still irritate me that the feature doesn't work but it would be a bit less annoying.
They can't untether auto wipers from autopilot since Teslavision is the only means of obstacle awareness and avoidance. If the system senses that the front camera is obscured during autopilot engagement, it can't wait for you to start the wipers. It would essentially be driving blind to do so, which means that it couldn't reliably avoid obstacles in front of you. They painted themselves into a corner before Teslavision was fully baked.
 
I just spent an afternoon and evening driving on the highway in the rain. My wiper controls were WORTHLESS. And worse than that,

THEY WERE DANGEROUS TO USE

Because the auto setting doesn't work correctly nearly all of the time, I had to adjust the wipers manually on the screen, which was horribly distracting and as a result, pretty dangerous as I had to keep taking my eyes off the road. Lots of swerving ensued. Voice commands worked once or twice, but very poorly.

If anyone can tell me the precise voice commands to use I'd certainly appreciate it.

This brand new car keeps disappointing and annoying the heck out of me.

I know I can dedicate the left steering wheel button to controlling them, and that holding the scroll wheel down gets me back to the audio controls, but COME ON, getting consistent and reliable responses using these little things to control the wipers AND audio? Ain't gonna happen in any dependable way without getting things pressed accidentally or the wrong way and creating even more distraction.

I understand this is a long standing problem and all agree it's very lame that they can't implement something that nearly every other can manufacturer does easily, SO,


TESLA - FIX THIS BEFORE IT KILLS ME!
 
I just spent an afternoon and evening driving on the highway in the rain. My wiper controls were WORTHLESS. And worse than that,

THEY WERE DANGEROUS TO USE

Because the auto setting doesn't work correctly nearly all of the time, I had to adjust the wipers manually on the screen, which was horribly distracting and as a result, pretty dangerous as I had to keep taking my eyes off the road. Lots of swerving ensued. Voice commands worked once or twice, but very poorly.

If anyone can tell me the precise voice commands to use I'd certainly appreciate it.

This brand new car keeps disappointing and annoying the heck out of me.

I know I can dedicate the left steering wheel button to controlling them, and that holding the scroll wheel down gets me back to the audio controls, but COME ON, getting consistent and reliable responses using these little things to control the wipers AND audio? Ain't gonna happen in any dependable way without getting things pressed accidentally or the wrong way and creating even more distraction.

I understand this is a long standing problem and all agree it's very lame that they can't implement something that nearly every other can manufacturer does easily, SO,


TESLA - FIX THIS BEFORE IT KILLS ME!
light press the wiper button (left stick in the USA) and then use the left scroll wheel, not up and down but rocking side to side.

so, press wiper button once and then rock the left control wheel left or right, this will adjust the wiper speed.
 
light press the wiper button (left stick in the USA) and then use the left scroll wheel, not up and down but rocking side to side.

so, press wiper button once and then rock the left control wheel left or right, this will adjust the wiper speed.
Ahhh, tested and it works. Thanks so much! Is that documented anywhere? When I was looking I saw no mention of it in the manual.

It's still a bit distracting and annoying to have to manually adjust the wipers in a car touted to "drive itself", especially when it's such a common function in most other new cars.

Sorry for the rant, it just annoys the heck out of me. :mad:
 
Ahhh, tested and it works. Thanks so much! Is that documented anywhere? When I was looking I saw no mention of it in the manual.

It's still a bit distracting and annoying to have to manually adjust the wipers in a car touted to "drive itself", especially when it's such a common function in most other new cars.

Sorry for the rant, it just annoys the heck out of me. :mad:
Yeah, sometimes Tesla gets into a "re-invent the wheel because it's there" mentality and you can really see it with the wiper controls. Once I spent a little time with the wiper controls I got a lot more ok with how they worked, but I'll admit that I have always been one of those people who doesn't use intermittent wipers and generally prefers to activate them manually whenever I feel like I nee them. For that the button on the left stalk is about the same for me.

For cars without stalks, though, the entire thing seems like a nightmare, and is a huge reason why I bought my MY this year instead of waiting for their update next year.
 
You can fix most of this issues with the s3xy commander
While I don't dispute the fact of it, I find this answer so immensely unsatisfying. The wiper controls are terrible on the Tesla, and it's doubly silly because my personal feeling is that they got pretty much every other aspect of the controls for the 2023 Y pretty perfect. Obviously that's my opinion, but I like it.

The wipers, however, are baffling. At least they made cleaning the windshield easy. It's one of my nightmares that they hide cleaning the windshield behind a button on the screen. Where I live I need to use the cleaner at least once a drive, largely because of dust. If they made me dig through the menu or use a voice command I would not have bought the car.
 
I’ve only had my car since August. The windshield wipers got significantly dumber with one of the fall updates — like everyone else here, they now wipe randomly under a clear sunny sky, and they are unreliable in the wet. Now I have to leave them off, and then when it rains tap the washer button on the stalk and fiddle with the screen to turn them on.

It is utterly inexcusable that Tesla should not be able to have a basic function like windshield wipers work without frustration. My other cars have had reliable automatic wipers for a decade. Tesla does a lot of things well but they sometimes manage to monumentally screw up things that they really cannot afford to screw up.
 
... and then when it rains tap the washer button on the stalk and fiddle with the screen to turn them on
No need to mess with the screen. Tap the wiper stalk button, then use the steering wheel left scroll wheel left/right to select wiper speed. Knowing that you can change wiper speeds without having to mess with the touchscreen takes a little bit of the sting out of using the awful wipers.

I agree the wipers are pathetic. I particularly despise that any time you engage cruise control, it forces the wipers back into automatic. The sad part is there was about a whole year where the wipers worked great, but they were awful before and are awful again. I don't understand how new software versions can so horribly regress.
 
Last edited:
We've had a lot of rain lately and the wipers are driving me crazy, reducing the quality of my driving experience, which annoys the heck out of me.

I looked at the s3xy commander but it was way to expensive.

I finally ordered this thing, which Tesla purists will hate, but will make things much easier for me, and it offers a lot more for a lot less. I'll report back once I have it installed.

And yeah, putting the wipers on auto when engaging cruise control is nuts. I can't understand why they did that.
 
We've had a lot of rain lately and the wipers are driving me crazy, reducing the quality of my driving experience, which annoys the heck out of me.

I looked at the s3xy commander but it was way to expensive.

I finally ordered this thing, which Tesla purists will hate, but will make things much easier for me, and it offers a lot more for a lot less. I'll report back once I have it installed.

And yeah, putting the wipers on auto when engaging cruise control is nuts. I can't understand why they did that.
Could have bought the s3xy buttons for same price. Their new gen 2 dongle is much better.
I have it set to deactivate wipers and high beams on AP. It’s awesome now