[creativeembassy]

This is my #1 complaint with our new Model Y. The "Auto" setting is completely worthless. It almost never turns on when it's raining. When it does turn on, it's either too fast or too slow. It'll turn on randomly when there's no rain.

But it's not just the sensor, which would be inconvenient. The lack of control makes it *dangerous*. You have to push the button in _slightly_ on the left stalk, which makes the wipers go once. And then you have to push the left scrollwheel left or right (but not up or down!) to turn the setting up or down, while staring at the bottom left part of the screen to figure out what setting you're on. All of this takes your eyes much further away from the road, while driving in more dangerous conditions with reduced visibility.

If any hardware manufacturers are listening, I'd gladly pay $200 for an aftermarket part that lets me control my goddamn wipers.

[m463]

> The lack of control makes it dangerous.

I totally agree with you.

But I suspect some company cultures are fundamentally broken. Apple started with a one-button mouse, and will probably never make a good mouse. I think tesla has adopted their broken mindset and I think the tesla culture will never make any of us happy.

Personally if the old tesla cars with the wiper control on the turn-signal stalk could just change the two useless auto settings to slow and fast intermittent... that would be SO wonderful.

[kayodelycaon]

> Tesla vehicles lack a rain sensor.

Here’s how a proper rain sensor works https://youtu.be/TLm7Q92xMjQ?si=Yb-_TBYbPIuPXk_p

[pseudosavant]

Good thing Tesla saves $1 on a few IR LEDs and photoresistors. That $50000 Model 3 is now $49999.

[thebruce87m]

Yep, and if you sell 10 million of them you have saved 10 million dollars.

[sundvor]

Great video. Tesla cars would just be so much better with these, it's kind of infuriating.

(Also the rear cross alert pings from my old (MT Sedan) Mazda 3 Astina '14 is something I miss greatly.)

Having said that, the wipers in my LR3'22 work pretty well and I am not really giving it that much thought.

I keep the area clean and wipe the blades down regularly. I do like how easy it is to engage the wiper service mode to be able to lift the blades; no manual required.

There was a time when perhaps I didn't keep the area that clean and found I couldn't really use cruise control on a highway drive without the wipers going nuts in the dry, fortunately it's been a while since I've experienced that - upgraded behaviour, perhaps.

[pseudosavant]

It would seem like you could sense rain hitting the roof through its acoustic signature using a contact piezo mic. That'd probably have a much larger effective sensing area than the IR sensor.

[kayodelycaon]

You don't need a large sensor area or complex audio analysis. A spot with a few IR diodes on the windshield is going to get wet if it's raining hard enough to need wipers.

[noSyncCloud]

Meanwhile 7? years ago I drove a company Volkswagen Touareg on a ca. 5 hour drive with constantly varying rain conditions the entire time and did not touch the wiper controls beyond initially setting them to Automatic. This is a solved problem.

[jerlam]

These are over $300 but these are aftermarket Tesla buttons that can control the wipers and other functions:

https://enhauto.com/product/four-s3xy-buttons-gen2

(not an owner, just have a good memory)

[ouryummydino]

Just keep 4 spare CR2032 batteries handy in case it starts raining and your wiper button batteries are dead.

[m463]

oh wow. amazing.

keep going! now a knob for volume control with push on/off, and a separate one for temperature with push on/off.

[cco]

There are aftermarket Tesla buttons that you can buy and program to change things like wipers. Maybe look into those.

[dmitrygr]

> I'd gladly pay $200 for an aftermarket part that lets me control my goddamn wipers.

A surprisingly low price for what will eventually cause your fatal accident due to inattention.

[ojbyrne]

“eventually” seems to be doing a lot of work here.