A few weeks ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter and solicited suggestions on how to further improve the Tesla driving experience. Amidst a flurry of suggestions, one of the few Musk responded to involved automatic windshield wipers that not only turn on when rain is detected, but can automatically change speed depending on how much rain is falling. Musk at the time noted that the feature would be “coming very soon.”
True to his word, Tesla on January 1 introduced a beta version of automatic windshield wipers with a variety of settings. While many Tesla owners were excited to hear the news, it wasn’t long before complaints about the new feature began to emerge.
More prominently, a thread that amassed thousands of views on Reddit details how Tesla’s automatic wipers can in some instances flood the interior of a car with water.
“When getting into the car in the rain,” the post reads, “the wipers auto-setting triggers when you open the door, which proceeds to dump all the water on the windshield into the car and you. Hopefully, future update will fix. (btw, not trying to upset people, just an observation. I love the car).”
While beta features are by definition prone to being buggy, having water thrown upon your person and inside your car seems a bit disconcerting, to say the least. Incidentally, Jalopnik notes that this was an issue back when Tesla first introduced the feature on the first iteration of its Autopilot hardware a few years ago, with one forum poster on Tesla’s message boards noting:
Setting the switch to activate the rain sensor causes the wiper to cycle once when you open the driver side door and get in. That is OK if the windshiled is dry. If the windshiled is wet the wiper sweeps all that water over to drench the inside of the door before one can get it closed.
Upon being made aware of the issue, Musk reassured Tesla owners that a fix will be coming soon via an impending software update.
Fixed in next release
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 9, 2018
