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Feature Ask: I want variable wiper frequency

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Love my car, but I live in the rainy Pacific NW and while I appreciate the concept of automatic wipers I find that the two existing settings often don't match my needs. So I want to suggest that the center console should have a setting to let me increase the frequency of the 2 wiper speeds via a slider setting. The setting would be something like a speed hint to go X% faster (or perhaps slower ) than the default. So for example full on for stalk setting 1 would have it just less than normal for stalk setting 2. Ideally I could adjust this setting via the thumb rollers as you can do now for sunroof opening.

Anyone else experiencing similar with the recent rain?
 
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I agree. Ideal would be to have the auto setting and the good old rotating knob to select manual intermittent.
Also agree. Tesla uses Daimler stalks and door controls/buttons like my previous MBZ had, which don't have the rotating knob on the wiper stalk for intermittent wiper speed that my former Lexus had and were so useful.

As discussed in another similar thread, IMHO creating an intermittent wiper speed slider on the MS 17" is only an odd workaround requiring the driver to turn the wiper on and set to intermittent with one arm/hand, THEN use the other to work through drop-down menus to set its speed. The more refined Japanese implementation with a single physical stalk/knob/and-circular-dial control is more useful and ergonomic than a techie touch screen implementation.
 
Love my car, but I live in the rainy Pacific NW and while I appreciate the concept of automatic wipers I find that the two existing settings often don't match my needs. So I want to suggest that the center console should have a setting to let me increase the frequency of the 2 wiper speeds via a slider setting. The setting would be something like a speed hint to go X% faster (or perhaps slower ) than the default. So for example full on for stalk setting 1 would have it just less than normal for stalk setting 2. Ideally I could adjust this setting via the thumb rollers as you can do now for sunroof opening.

Anyone else experiencing similar with the recent rain?
thats odd it only has those setting.
 
I find these comments a bit odd because the S does have that feature. The first setting is slow intermittent, the second faster and so on. What is missing?
 
I find these comments a bit odd because the S does have that feature. The first setting is slow intermittent, the second faster and so on. What is missing?
Some competitive vehicles like Lexus allow the speed at which it's intermittent setting wipes the windshield to be infinitely varied in addition to it having a camera and sensing how much water is on the windshield. As such, it can address nearly any condition to make most owner's happy with the result. OTOH, Tesla and MBZ implementations also have a camera to sense water on the windshield, but have only 2 intermittent settings -- "slow" and "fast" -- which some owners find do not sufficiently address the range of conditions they encounter.
 
I find these comments a bit odd because the S does have that feature. The first setting is slow intermittent, the second faster and so on. What is missing?

The problem is that neither of the intermittent are fast enough for the rain we experience here in Seattle. The intermittent mode is not strictly time-based, it uses a sensor to determine when to wipe. I am asking for the ability to request a higher sensitivity.

I agree with many that a more traditional stalk based solution might be better. However I highly doubt that we will be offered that as a retrofit option. Since I'm unlikely to buy a new S just for this feature the purely hw based solution is irrelevant. Which is why I'm searching for a sw based solution.
 
The cars I've driven with rain-sensing wipers have typically had four levels of sensitivity, and I normally keep it at the second highest level. Occasionally I've found it a little slow for my Seattle-area needs but generally it has worked fine.

I don't get my Model S for another month but I will be curious to see how my experience in the Seattle weather compares with yours.
 
We do have two manual levels in addition to two auto levels. Are you saying that the fast manual level is also too slow?
No, I believe the OP is saying that the manual levels are high and low levels of "on." There is no manual adjustment for the intermittent setting. For example, my old Porsche 928 had a wheel that provided infinite variability for the intermittent setting. That was nice. The two levels of rain-sensing auto leave much to be desired, as frequently it wipes a dry windshield or declines to wipe a windshield that is opaque with spray. To be fair, it's not just Tesla. I hate all rain-sensing wipers equally. The ones on my MS are actually better than my wife's BMW of the same vintage.
 
I find these comments a bit odd because the S does have that feature. The first setting is slow intermittent, the second faster and so on. What is missing?

The first setting is low intermittent on a rain sensing level. I noticed that if the sensor doesn't register rain it won't wipe. I've had times where there isn't enough rain to trigger the sensor, but enough rain to require the wipers to run. I do agree with the OP. I would trade true intermittent manual wipers and drop the rain sensing ones. The theory for rain sensing was good, but the actual application wasn't.
 
I am hoping that this is just a question of sensitivity that can be adjusted. It doesn't seem hard to combine auto-sensing with time-based intermittent. A slider to adjust "sensitivity" on the center console settings could go a long way towards improving.
 
I totally agree.

What I'd like is the ability to have 4 manual settings instead of 2 manual settings, and 2 automatic settings.

I'd also like the automatic lights not to turn off so quickly when triggered by the wipers.

What people don't understand is in Seattle there is a lot of variability in the rain. It can be sorta kinda misting occasionally, to misting most of the time all the way to torrential down pours.

We have a wide variety of rain. Just not warm rain. No warm rain.

In fact it should just have a Seattle mode. Lights on all the time during the fall/winter/spring, night mode on all the time, and mood music to improve a persons spirit after a month of continuous rain. Oh, and definitely a summons to California mode too.
 
I completely agree with this request as my wipers have never worked very well in either of the auto modes.

My suggestion would be to provide a setting on the main screen that configures the following:
1. Auto or intermittent using the existing stalk settings
2. If intermittent, allow configuration of the time interval for each of the 2 stalk settings.

This should be possible with just a software update and would allow enough flexibility for most people.
 
I agree with the OP (similar weather here!). Neither of the auto sensing settings seem to be of much use in typical rain here - when using auto I'm forever having to also press the manual wipe button on the stalk every few seconds or momentarily switch to the low always-on setting if it's not raining hard enough to actually require one of the always-on settings. The auto sensing settings don't work as well as any other car I've driven with a simple time-based intermittent wiper.

I guess Tesla engineers have never tested the wipers outside of California or the lab? Maybe if one of the two auto sensing settings was changed to simple time-based intermittent wipers that would be better (I can't notice any useful difference between the two auto settings anyhow). As suggested, perhaps the time delay could be adjustable in the touchscreen settings, then no hardware changes required.