Wipers

[Leytonstone]

Whereas, now, if I use auto my car will maintain high beam until it has clear sight of the oncoming car's headlights (its probably better than that, but not always). There are cases where it may fail to detect at all - e.g. dual carriage with a good solid central barrier - where it will engage high beam, that won't upset oncoming cars, but truck drivers, sitting up high, will be blinded (and their headlights will not be visible behind a good solid central reservation barrier)

The biggest failing of these silly systems is that they don't spot cars waiting in side turnings. I remember years ago driving a Volvo with matrix lamps along the A414 and seeing the driver of a car in an adjoining left side road giving me his unwavering mid digit as I went past not knowing how to dip the beam.

 

[WannabeOwner]

This is exactly what true Matrix headlamps do and many established manufacturers with their more premium offerings have fitted.

Yup, understood, but do they block out the necessary bit 100% of the time? - e.g. my edge case of a solid median, hiding oncoming lights on the other carriageway, but drivers of tall trucks then being blinded?

'Coz if not its not acceptable, in my book.

Back when I did try it, I drove down a very narrow lane with very high banks and some trees etc. at dusk. Tesla decided dipped was appropriate and I desperately needed full beam to see where I was going; all of a sudden i found myself in a situation which was plain dangerous. I don't use auto-headlights, so I expect its been fixed, but pressing BEAM didn't override it, back then.

"Fur coat, no knickers" springs to mind.

 

[JKent]

Glad I read these. I was about to make a new post titled "wipers have a mind of their own". But I see that's been covered.
On my 1st longish trip (about 220 mi round trip) in my 3-month old Y, the wipers would come on for no apparent reason and could not be turned off. I tried squirting the windshield to clear any shmutz the camera might be seeing but that didn't help. Eventually I realized it was happening mostly with cruise control engaged. Learned here that cruise control switches the wipers to Auto and it cannot be disengaged. That sounds like a simple software fix to me--just allow the driver to turn off Auto wipers when using any type of Autopilot. Am I missing something?

 

[Adopado]

Glad I read these. I was about to make a new post titled "wipers have a mind of their own". But I see that's been covered.
On my 1st longish trip (about 220 mi round trip) in my 3-month old Y, the wipers would come on for no apparent reason and could not be turned off. I tried squirting the windshield to clear any shmutz the camera might be seeing but that didn't help. Eventually I realized it was happening mostly with cruise control engaged. Learned here that cruise control switches the wipers to Auto and it cannot be disengaged. That sounds like a simple software fix to me--just allow the driver to turn off Auto wipers when using any type of Autopilot. Am I missing something?

What you are missing is that is how they used to work i.e. there were no "compulsory wipers" whilst using cruise or autopilot. The software "improvement" was to force them to be on

 

[JKent]

Well, I've only owned a Tesla for 3 months. Also--Sorry I mistakenly posted in the UK/Ireland section.

 

[Adopado]

Well, I've only owned a Tesla for 3 months. Also--Sorry I mistakenly posted in the UK/Ireland section.

Yes, lots of people complained on the forum when this unwanted "feature" was introduced. You're welcome in the UK/Ireland section of the forum but just watch out in case you find yourself commenting on issues that are actually different on our cars to your own e.g. autopilot and FSD software.

 

[MrT3]

That sounds like a simple software fix to me--just allow the driver to turn off Auto wipers when using any type of Autopilot. Am I missing something?

The logic is sound - the camera needs to be able to see clearly so it needs to be in control of the wipers, especially as they removed radar so they is no other means for it to detect vehicles ahead.

Where it falls down is that the auto wiper implementation is far from perfect - or more accurately possibly the worst implementation of auto wiper functionality on any vehicle currently on sale.

 

[djtaylor]

Yes, lots of people complained on the forum when this unwanted "feature" was introduced. You're welcome in the UK/Ireland section of the forum but just watch out in case you find yourself commenting on issues that are actually different on our cars to your own e.g. autopilot and FSD software.

They may be welcome in the UK/Ireland section but only if they type on the left yes?

 

[GalacticHero]

It's not just that the wipers are bad (which they are) but they are worse. It used to just be an annoyance that they didn't wipe, but I could just press the manual button. When it got annoying enough I'd switch it to manual mode while the wiper card was visible. Now it is frequently and randomly wiping when no rain is present. (I've cleaned the cameras.)

 

[MrT3]

Now it is frequently and randomly wiping when no rain is present. (I've cleaned the cameras.)

Yes, it's annoying. Especially as the way to stop it involves making it wipe again to bring up the control to turn it off.

 

[Masklin]

I just assumed someone had got the auto setting computer code back to front as invariably they randomly wipe when it’s bone dry and fail to wipe when the rain is torrential. Absolutely hopeless.

 

[Pagemakers]

It's not just that the wipers are bad (which they are) but they are worse. It used to just be an annoyance that they didn't wipe, but I could just press the manual button. When it got annoying enough I'd switch it to manual mode while the wiper card was visible. Now it is frequently and randomly wiping when no rain is present. (I've cleaned the cameras.)

Wait until you turn Autopilot on and you don’t have a choice to turn the blasted things off and they screech across your dry windscreen when the storm clouds are a hundred miles ahead in the distance. Then the fun begins.

 

[Dracaris]

Wait until you turn Autopilot on and you don’t have a choice to turn the blasted things off and they screech across your dry windscreen when the storm clouds are a hundred miles ahead in the distance. Then the fun begins.

It's not just the screeching of the dry wipers, it's my resultant swearing and cursing of Tesla software, their software "engineers," and their CEO. Folks can probably hear that all the way across the pond from the US.

 

[s_zigmond]

I have noticed a new feature of my auto wipers. I have always had them come on when turning into direct sunlight. They now come on when I go from a dark road towards a street light, but don't worry I they still don't wipe away rain at dusk.

 

[McXtravert]

I have noticed a new feature of my auto wipers. I have always had them come on when turning into direct sunlight. They now come on when I go from a dark road towards a street light, but don't worry I they still don't wipe away rain at dusk.

Wait until it is a clear evening and you are traveling in a direction with the moon ahead. FOD = Moon in Tesla software language that must be wiped away.

 

[MkPotato]

I have noticed a new feature of my auto wipers. I have always had them come on when turning into direct sunlight. They now come on when I go from a dark road towards a street light, but don't worry I they still don't wipe away rain at dusk.

It’s difficult to tell whether they have been tweaking the sensitivity up/down so it seems to vary over time, or it’s the particular conditions that suit the system or not. I had a period about 6m ago where driving along tree-lined streets set the wipers off. It was extremely annoying, but they don’t seem to do that now.

Of course the solution would be to have variable sensitivity that could be adjusted by a control on a steering wheel stalk, like the vast majority of manufacturers have concluded is the best solution. It’s exasperating that Tesla can be so idiotic.

 

[M00cow]

Of course the solution would be to have variable sensitivity that could be adjusted by a control on a steering wheel stalk, like the vast majority of manufacturers have concluded is the best solution. It’s exasperating that Tesla can be so idiotic.

Or perhaps go with the decades old tech that worked instead of an AI/Vision based solution for the sake of it?
I have had faultless reliability with VW, Merc, Nissan, Audi, Mini and Skoda auto wipers which all use a gel packed sensor - oldest car here coming on 20 years old at this point.
The same is true of those that had auto headlights (again also a 20 year old car) - no issues at all and cetainly no trust issues like I do with Tesla's systems - it negates the point of having them if I have to keep second guessing if the lightest drop of rain is going to cause it try and wipe at full pelt, or if the oncoming car is going to be blinded by me today because the computer says so.

 

[stavstavcc]

Or perhaps go with the decades old tech that worked instead of an AI/Vision based solution for the sake of it?

Spot on, rain-sensing wipers have been there since 1978*! But yeah, Tesla has to re-invent the wheel. A square wheel apparently.

* Windscreen wiper - Wikipedia
"The rain-sensing wipers system currently employed by most car manufacturers today was originally invented and patented in 1978 by Australian, Raymond J. Noack, see U.S. Patents 4,355,271 and 5,796,106. The original system automatically operated the wipers, lights and windscreen washers."

 

[exlatccatsa]

I found out a couple of days ago I can turn off my wipers whilst on TACC. I'm sure I never used to be able to do that, I'm sure they always had to be on or auto. When did this change?

 

[Pagemakers]

A few updates ago