Tesla Auto Wipers: Why They Don't Work and Why There Isn't an Easy Fix

Tesla's Auto Wipers have been a pain point for the company

Not a Tesla App

Tesla’s Autowipers have been a long-standing issue for customers, as well as Tesla’s engineers. Elon Musk has often mentioned that improvements to Autowipers have been around the corner for years, but they appear to have taken a rain check.

Tesla owners often complain that their wipers are running against a completely dry windshield on a sunny day, or not running at all in light rain. Moderate to heavy rain performance seems to be improved for the most recent update to Auto Wipers.

In our test, we cover the vehicle's windshield with Post-It notes to find out what the vehicle’s cameras can see.

We cover the windshield in Post-It notes

Not a Tesla App

The Water Problem

Tesla vehicles lack a rain sensor. This is a result of Tesla’s strategy to rely upon Tesla Vision to replace all sensors – which they’ve successfully used most recently to replace the ultrasonic parking sensors (USS) on their vehicles. Tesla believes that vision is the solution to achieving all self-driving capabilities, and this includes the elimination of extraneous sensors such as USS and radar.

Of course, many other vehicles employ simple rain sensors that do function fairly well, and effectively detect the presence of water on the windshield. So, what’s stopping Tesla Vision from doing the same thing?

The problem isn’t Tesla’s detection methods, it’s the view of the windshield Tesla has. Water droplets are small and the three front cameras only capture a small portion of the entire windshield, making it difficult for them to capture and acknowledge the fact that there is water on the windshield that needs to be wiped away. This is in addition to the fact that the cameras are focused further away, to drive and navigate the vehicle effectively, rendering the visuals close to the camera blurry – leaving a rather technical challenge.

Our Test

The car's wide-angle camera

Not a Tesla App

Even Tesla’s front-facing, wide-angle camera can barely see the yellow Post-In notes in our test, let alone the blue Post-It notes spread through the windshield. Tesla’s other front-facing camera, the “main” camera, sees only a trace of the Post-Its along the bottom. In reality, Tesla has no idea what’s on the vehicle's windshield and can only make assumptions based on a few square inches near the top of the windshield. If any rain droplets are on this portion of the windshield, they’ll also be out of focus. If the view of the rain droplets was as clear at the image at the top of this article, Tesla would have perfected auto wipers years ago.

Tesla’s third front-facing camera, the “narrow” view, is only available on hardware 3 and it’s just a zoomed-in version of the main camera, which causes it to miss our Post-It notes completely. With hardware 4, Tesla removed the narrow camera and now determines the narrow view by cropping the main camera, which has a higher resolution in hardware 4.

Water droplets on the windshield

Not a Tesla App

Tesla’s Engineering Magic

Tesla is able to detect drops on the windshield when they land in front of the camera cluster, but again, since the cluster is mounted high above most of the windshield, this can lead to the windshield filling up with water droplets before a wipe is triggered.

They’ve also tried using the vehicle’s other cameras, such as the repeater or B-pillar cameras to detect falling rain – which can help the Autowiper system build confidence that there is water on the windshield. Once it has enough confidence, it triggers a wipe – or changes the wipe modes. However, in reality, due to the focal length of the cameras, it has a difficult time detecting rain droplets because they’re out of focus.
In the image below, taken from Tesla’s wide-angle camera, you can see that the water droplets from the previous image are nearly impossible to detect. On the left, is the windshield with the water droplets, and on the right is the windshield after being wiped. While the droplets cause a slightly blurry image, they’re extremely difficult to see.

How water droplets look to the camera (left) and how a clean windshield looks (right)

Not a Tesla App

Wiping Away Challenges

The transition to entirely vision has left a considerable challenge for Tesla’s very capable engineering teams. The current Autopilot hardware suite lacks a good view of the windshield itself, but it can detect falling rain. Given that Tesla’s software can detect and display other vehicles using turn signals, it is also possible that they could detect other vehicles using wipers or use other cameras to see rain on the vehicle, such as the B-pillar cameras, to increase the system’s confidence that a wipe is required.

However, these solutions are likely to not be perfect, as they don’t provide an accurate representation of what the driver sees in the windshield, but instead an accurate representation of what the vehicle itself can see.

When engaging FSD on a lightly rainy day, your car may drive perfectly, but you’ll have a windshield full of rain when supervising!

Of course, there are many other reasons to run the windshield wipers beyond simple rain – spray and debris from vehicles in front, water falling from trees or being kicked up by deep puddles, or even snow settling on the windshield. Another challenge is bugs – they leave sticky smears at higher speeds when impacting the windshield, causing spots that can impede either vehicle vision or driver vision.

Future Solutions

Tesla likes to avoid solutions that only solve a single problem – such as adding a rain sensor. It is an additional manufacturing complication, adds additional cost to vehicles, and segments Tesla’s vehicles between model years.

On the other hand, cameras have solved many problems over the years – such as Tesla Vision taking over from the USS system that was present on pre-2022 Tesla vehicles. While it did take until FSD V12 for Autopark to become available to vision-only vehicles, the upgraded Vision-based Autopark is a marked improvement over the older USS solution.

Another such problem has been auto-high beams, which were solved with better oncoming vehicle detection and improved AI – which has led to a feature that is much better than its original implementation. This updated implementation has also led to improvements in the use of Matrix headlights – a feature that for now is only available in Europe and China due to legislative issues in the US.

Tesla is most likely going to be pushing another hardware revision – Hardware 5 – in the coming years. Some of the indications of this include the Cybertruck’s bumper camera – which is also expected to arrive in the Model X and Model S in the future.

There is a chance that Tesla may include a forward-facing interior at some point – to solve the fact that Vision is unable to currently see the windshield. However, Tesla also strongly believes they’ll achieve level 4 or 5 of vehicle autonomy in the future, so they could also be banking on autonomy removing the need for good auto wipers.

A Personal Example

If you get into your Tesla on a rainy day or add some drizzle via a watering jug, you can see how Tesla’s Autowipers will not activate unless water is placed directly in front of the camera cluster. You can also spray some water onto the camera housing and take a seat inside and use the camera preview to view what the cameras can see. It’ll provide you with a blurry, limited view of what the cameras see.

We may see further software improvements, but it may be a difficult engineering problem to solve with the limited camera capabilities that currently exist on hardware 3 and hardware 4 vehicles.

Follow

Follow

Follow

Tesla’s More Affordable Vehicle Update: Q1 2025

@DominicBRNKMN/X

Alongside the many things we learned about Unsupervised FSD and the Robotaxi program, we also got to find out a little more about Tesla’s more affordable vehicle in the Q1 2025 Earnings Call.

There has been extensive reporting on what the long-anticipated affordable EV option would become, and we’ve seen numerous news stories mentioning that it was delayed or even arriving on time. The executive team revealed the near-term and long-term plans for Tesla’s upcoming vehicles, and there’s definitely good news to share here.

Updated Timeline

The most important piece of news is that despite all the talk of delays from supposed inside sources, Tesla has confirmed that the plan for its more affordable model remains on schedule for production to begin in the first half of 2025. Tesla’s executive team narrowed that timeline down further - and said that they expect production to kick off as soon as June and that the new model will be in the market shortly thereafter.

While the production timeline itself is on track, Tesla did note that the subsequent ramping process will likely be slower than initially hoped, citing global tariff and financial impacts as challenges to overcome to prepare its production lines.

Hybrid Production Approach

Tesla has once again confirmed that this will not be their next-generation vehicle, built using new production methods. Instead, they outlined a relatively more pragmatic approach for this new model.

Tesla will utilize aspects of both the next-generation platform as well as some parts of its current platforms (namely the Model 3 and Model Y). This means that Tesla will produce this new vehicle on the same manufacturing lines as the Model 3 and Model Y.

This strategy allows Tesla to bring the vehicle to the market more quickly, while also managing capital expenditures more efficiently by using existing infrastructure. However, Tesla’s executive team also noted that this approach, while faster, will result in fewer cost reductions than what might have been achieved with an entirely new platform and dedicated manufacturing process.

Vehicle Design

Using these existing production lines means that Tesla’s new vehicle will likely share some considerable similarities with either the existing Model 3 or Model Y. Rather than being a radically different and smaller vehicle, this new model will resemble the overall form factor and shape of Tesla’s current core offerings, while being optimized for a lower cost.

This doesn’t mean that Tesla is forgetting the overall goal here. Their ultimate goal is to reduce the initial cost of ownership and lower monthly payments for customers while maintaining a standard of excellence and safety.

Not Unboxed

Both at this Earnings Call and previous ones, Tesla has indicated that this new vehicle will not be using the innovative unboxed assembly method, at least for the time being. That relatively unique method will be developed and implemented specifically for the purpose-built Cybercab and for future vehicles on the next-generation platform.

We’re just a few days away from May, so it won’t be long before we see more about this upcoming vehicle. Stay tuned.

Follow

Follow

Follow

U.S. Announces New Autonomous Vehicle Framework and What It Means for Tesla

Not a Tesla App

In a follow-up move to the current US administration’s goals to introduce a federal framework for autonomous vehicles, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is loosening autonomy restrictions following an announcement from Secretary Sean Duffy on X. This new initiative helps streamline complex regulatory processes and foster home-grown innovation.

From the Wright Brothers to the first astronauts on the moon, our nation has always been at the forefront of transportation technology.

That’s why today we're unveiling a new Automated Vehicle Framework from @USDOT’s Innovation Agenda ⬇️ ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/W3kbMUwQSn

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) April 24, 2025

Automated Vehicle Framework

As part of the broader upcoming USDOT Innovation Agenda, the newly unveiled AV Framework is designed to promote American innovation and strengthen domestic engineering while maintaining existing safety standards. The framework centers around three key principles:

• Prioritize Safety

• Unleash Innovation

• Enable Commercial Deployment

To kickstart this AV framework, USDOT announced two initial steps focused on streamlining processes and expanding opportunities.

Crash Reporting Requirements

Under the first principle to Prioritize Safety, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) will maintain its Standing General Order requiring crash reporting on Advanced and Automated Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS and ADS). 

However, the reporting process will be streamlined following feedback from AV innovators, likely including Tesla. The goal here is to focus on collecting critical safety information while removing unnecessary or duplicative items from the reporting process, thereby reducing the burden without compromising safety.

Cutting Red Tape

Directly tied to the second principle of Unleash Innovation, the framework also seeks to slash red tape. The first step here is the expansion of the Automated Vehicle Exemption Program, or AVEP. This program allows manufacturers to petition for temporary exemptions from certain federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) for testing or deployment purposes.

Previously, the standard excluded domestically produced vehicles. Now, domestically produced AVs will not need to meet FMVSS, which will broaden the scope for manufacturers to test more innovative and unique designs and technologies.

Single National Standard for AVs

Finally, tied to the third principle of Enable Commerical Development, USDOT intends to move the United States closer to a single national standard for autonomous vehicles. This aims to prevent a confusing and inefficient patchwork of state-level or city-level laws and regulations, which can create hurdles for companies attempting to innovate, deploy, and scale their technology.

A unified standard across the United States also means that Canada and Mexico will likely be able to follow, as they share homologization standards across North America, including for vehicle crash safety and some autonomy regulations.

What This Means for Tesla

These framework changes will likely have a substantial impact on Tesla. The move towards a national standard is potentially the most impactful change, as Tesla identified regulatory hurdles as one of the most significant challenges it will face with the deployment of both Unsupervised FSD and its Robotaxi network.

The reduction of FMVSS requirements and streamlined reporting will likely play a role in the future as well. The FMVSS requirements are probably already being worked on, if not already met, by the Cybercab and other vehicles in Tesla’s lineup.

Meanwhile, the streamlined reporting will be helpful once Tesla officially launches its Robotaxi network in June.

You can read the official press release on the announcement here.

Follow

Follow

Follow