Auto Wipers are a pain

It usually does it if something is blocking your front cameras. Make sure to keep your windshield clean right in front of the cameras!

My '21 M3 does very similar, so much so, that I keep it in off mode and control it myself when/if needed via the lever and scroll wheel. Even with it fully turned off, the 5-6 times per week I use auto-park, the wipers STILL come on for a single pass. I posted about this particular issue here some time back, and did not receive a single response.

They are horrible. I drive mostly in the dark. Maybe 3 wipes on a 20 min commute. Maybe more. Been like this since 2020. Every damn time. Windshield is clean they just suck. Been thinking about taking the wipers off the spindles.

Windshield is clean, especially the portion near the camera.

Mine do this too and was hoping that when I replaced my 2020 with a 2025, the problem would magically disappear. Guess that was magical thinking, too. I've tried cleaning the windshield each time I get home and it makes no difference, and just took it in to have the service center clean the inside. No difference in behavior. I've noticed some consistency. Mine go on right when I back out of my garage, which is a gray stucco house. I'm wondering if the stucco texture triggers. There is also a street light near my house that triggers them. Other time just seems random.

Elon said they would get better in 3 weeks (2 years ago ... )

They have stopped trying on this one, its not great and never has been…just go old school and pick a speed using stalk if you have one, note you can use the left steering wheel dial after pressing windshield in case didnt know

I hate them. All the auto stuff is stupid as hell.

Yep, actually got worse over time on my 19 with newer software. Any other car I own (owned) works. So, I annoying driving out of the garage on a dry day (with clean windshield - as if this is supposed to be a requirement and possible on a daily driver) and I get my hello wipe. On the other hand, rain is increasing - and no wipe.

I noticed that. Light change has an impact. - just driving out of garage

The whole wiper system and water system on the model 3 is garbage. My first model 3 was a 2019. If I opened the trunk when it was raining, all the water from the rear window would rush directly into the trunk. There were no channels to divert the water off the side. Someone smashed into that car and now I have a 2022, and it's better in this regard. However, let's talk about the windshield wash fluid. Anytime you use this, it ends up all over the driver's window. Again, there are no channels on the sides of the windshield to divert that water down; it goes right to the driver's window. If you're unfortunate enough to use it when your window is down, then you're getting all that water in your car. Finally, I live where it snows. On almost every vehicle I see here, one can pull the wipers away from the windshield so they're 'floating' in the air, and thus not getting iced onto the windshield. Not on the model 3. We get the shitty service mode that puts them 6 inches up the windshield, but there's absolutely no way to pull them off the windshield. Anyway rant over. I do like my car but there are many things about it and water and wipers that I hate.

Have you cleaned the inside of the windshield inside of the plastic camera housing? After cleaning, no more ghost wipers.

Although true its been working more correctly for me than not in recent months. A very minor annoyance in my experience.

Auto wipers work fine in my other cars, not sure why tesla's dont behave correctly. Did they cheap out on a sensor as usual?

Yeah, no rain sensor. It just relies on the cameras.

I keep mine set to off but anytime I use FSD it turns them back on

auto hov worked flawless for me. You had multiple people in the car?

If they actually put in a tiny bit of effort, they could make the manual controls actually useful. Why is it just 4 speeds? Why not like the volume slider? 1 is so often too fast. My 30yr old bmw had a super simple programmable mode where you could set them as fast or slow as you wanted

Just turn them off?

Is the inside of your windshield in front of the cameras clean?

2025 m3 and mine does it but rare enough to gaf

The problem is that when you're using auto pilot or just cruise control they turn back on every time you turn it on / change lanes. Really annoying

My biggest complaint is 1 is too fast. So I just manually hit the wiper button on my wheel every minute now lol

It doesn't have any effect. I have the same issues. Tesla's auto wipers are shit.

I was thinking the same thing. Why not just turn the things off?

S3XY Commander has an Automation that keeps them turned of at all times until u manually turn them on when it rains. Fantastic feature plus u get a multitude of other fantastic automations as a bonus and you can always connect (via bluetooth to the commander) the S3XY knob, buttons, stalks, dash, strip, etc. aswell. Fantastic system, easy install and my most essential Tesla accessory by far! [https://www.enhauto.com/](https://www.enhauto.com/)

Just turn it off and manage it manually. Like it's 1978...

Just give me complete control over the speed!!

just like cheaping out on side mirror warning sensor, no garage door opener, ...

They turn back on whenever you use FSD. So the problem continues.

There's a blind spot warning, and a garage door opener...

Neither of the features on the Commander to stop the wipers going to auto on FSD have ever worked consistently for me. In some cases, have made it worse.

Try 6 years ago.

Primary issue is that wipers default to Auto every time you turn on FSD. And for most of us, that means a dry wipe of the windshield with every FSD activation, streaking whatever is on there.

Auto wipers are far and above the worst feature on this vehicle. They are trash and have never worked as intended. I have a 2020 Volvo XC90 with auto wipers that work great, thanks to a dedicated rain sensor. The design decision to eliminate a rain sensor and let the forward camera handle the wipers is baffling. They haven’t gotten it to work correctly for years and this has been a chronic complaint from customers. I don’t understand why they won’t reverse course.

like where? my 2019 only has the camera thing which is just crap. garage door opener is an extra after install.

Use S3XY buttons by Enhance Auto to force the wipers off, even when using cruse control/AP/FSD.

exactly, I use FSD for my drives, having to turn them off every time is quite frustrating, and a first world problem, i get it. BUT I drive 15k miles a year, want the car to work as i want.

And why not a dial on the stalk like every other vehicle. People are delusional about the manual controls for wipers being sufficient. A dial is perfect as it has 2 ends, easy tactile control. Tesla is ridiculous by comparison, the process still isnt muscle memory for me and it ain't a skill issue its just inferior.

Garage opener is an option for like $300, tough to justify.

Strange. Works consistently and flawlessly for me (2024 Highland AWD LR).

Have you cleaned the inside of the windshield inside of the plastic camera housing? After cleaning, no more ghost wipers. Just sharing my experience and it did make a difference. I haven’t had the phantom wipers since.

Sure did. Watched a few YouTube videos and cleaned it. Sure, it may have improved a bit but it still occurs. Dragging dry wipers across my windshield... smearing any contamination across it even more. Super fun in the salty winters. Elon, put an actual rain sensor on the damn car! Hell, just give me the old school manual selection on the stalk. My Honda Odyssey wipers are light-years better than Tesla

It annoyed the shit outta me recently. It had snowed, but my windshield was clear and I turned off auto wipers. Then I turned on FSD… A few minutes later they activated out of nowhere and covered my clear, clean windshield with snow and water. And because the snow was stuck to the blades, I never had a clear windshield again for the rest of the ride. All because auto wipers are automatically turned back on and they felt they had to wipe the sunlight off my face.

Ahh okay. I don't use FSD. That would be annoying especially since lots of folks probably pay for FSD.

Your life must be great, to find such inane things, minor temporary hiccups, to complain about.

Are you using “Force Manual Wipers” or “Keep Wipers Off”?

I love how water vapor/steam from ICE exhausts trigger the wipers.

This is the main I got the S3XY Knob and Commander. Wipers are set to off and stay permanently off until I switch them back to auto when it’s actually raining.

Ya it's just ridiculous. Mine swiped once today and it was dry. It's the most confused thing

It was raining hard recently and they were terribly unreliable. I just might integrate my own damn sensor.

Yep. I just think of it as a feature and explain it that way to my friends in the car

Yeah wipers that only wipe when a small 3"x3" section detects a spot. It can NEVER be good ever. It can only be fine. Like many other aspects of the car. Needs more sensors.

First time?

Been that way since at least 2019.

It doesn’t matter. I had the “windshield camera precision cleaning” done at the service center. The wipers did their standard dry wipe as I activated FSD when leaving the service center.

The auto wipers on my 2000 Passat were miles better.

Same story here, took it apart, cleaned it, auto wipers still suckkkkk

Did it a while back but I believe Keep Wipers Off. I'll have a look at my settings and get back to you. as soon as I can.

This is such a moot argument. The wipers sit there in the ‘parked’ position when it’s pissing down rain too - just admit that they’re garbage.

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Since the auto mode for the wipers seems like it will never be fixed the least the programmers could do is allow us the amount of time between wipes on modes I, II, III.

I never said they aren’t, I had just seen other posts mentioning the glass inside affects it. Wasn’t even an argument.

Interesting, good to know. I’d seen posts about the inside of the glass affecting it and was mostly curious if that’s true. Based on your experience, seems it’s not.

Occasionally my wipers go off when leaving my garage while it’s daylight, I’m getting my front camera glass cleaned today among other things, so I’m hoping that fixes it

Even just cruise control. It's the most infuriating thing. I am a heavy cruise control user, but where I live it's mostly double Lane 80km/h highways, so any time you come up to traffic or things change, cruise goes off and on and then wipers are back to auto.

4 adult occupants.. but it started taking the non-HOV lanes. Granted this is the first time using it .. so, any experiences.. good or bad .. are anecdotal at this time.

Not really .. but drove 650 miles yesterday (mostly on FSD), and it happened so many times ... very irritating!

No stalk. Was driving 650 miles on FSD .. driver has no choice. I cleaned the windshield often to reduce chances of scratching but the wiper came on unexpectedly so many times, I suspect there was some damage.

Not an option for me ... was driving 650 miles on FSD. FSD enables them. Wipers must have come on at least a hundred times (I cleaned the windshield regularly to reduce chance of scratches)

I just use my wipers like a normal car when I need em I turn em on and when I don’t I turn em off people are getting lazy wit these new technology and when it stop working they act like they lost everything😂

Never had my wipers turn on with fsd is it only hw4

I got my M3P 2024 a month ago, I switched them off after 20 minutes owning the car

When using FSD, they turn on.

I never used it

It's a lease (and planning to return next year). Don't want to invest in any 3rd party accessories.

It's extra annoying on road trips. The wipers came on hundreds of times on a 650 mile drive, streaking the windshield, and possibly scratching it. I am sure this isn't doing the wiper baldes any good either. I cleaned the windshield every time I stopped for charging and also used the windshield washer occasionally (though there was no need to), just to reduce the chance of scratches.

They absolutely are! They randomly turn on for no reason! And then if you turn them off, so they're not on auto, they automatically turn themselves back to auto! Stupid. I'm in a new model X demo, and have been for over a week now. Another thing that's a pain in the buttabout it is the car will just randomly open the driver side door. Like if I do Camp mode, and I'm in the back with my phone somewhere in the back or on the armrest, all of a sudden I'll hear the driver side door pop open. I'm not even touching the phone or anything. The first time it scared me I thought someone was getting in the car. Crazy.

Yeah in the new one I will turn them off of Auto in not even 30 minutes later they turn right back on.

Update: On my return 650 mile FSD trip under similar conditions, the wipers didn't go crazy like they did a few days ago. They did go off a few times but mostly while taking exits for charging/breaks. Main difference: I was travelling south earlier, and now, I am travelling north. It looks like sunlight directly hitting the camera is causing the issue. This was in spite of a clean windshield (both inside and outside). Tesla must be aware of this, and I hope they are doing something to improve rain detection. Maybe they will add a lens hood or something like that 😃

Ive got it and it doesn't prevent the first dry wipe. It flicks to auto for a millisecond when going to fsd then it turns wipers off but the dry wipe still happens on keep wipers off Manual wipers option doesn't work with fsd as fsd still manages to change to auto 50% of the time but the option does work with autopilot

All it need is a rain sensor…🤦🏻

Did you ever get a chance to figure this out?

Sorry for the late reply. Finally got around to looking at the Commander settings. In the "Keep Auto Wipers Off Settings", I have "Force Manual Wipers" toggled Off and "Keep Wipers Off" toggled ON and have never had an issue. Hope this helps.

Thank you! I’ll give it another shot with that setting.

Incredibly unsafe - just turn them to "off" and tap the button when you need a clean! I drive with my wipers set to off over 90% of the time.

That sucks