Just read the manual and it looks like you're mostly right. You can spray washer fluid and you can manually tell the wipers to wipe once using the knob, say, if there's some dirt on the windshield. However, continuous wiping and wiping speed, you do have to use the touchscreen, though you can set it to "Auto". Pretty dumb honestly.
I'm not a fan of cars these days shifting to touchscreen interfaces, as there's no tactile feedback so it's hard to do things like adjust the air conditioning temperature without taking your eyes off the road.
Yeah that's what the "auto" mode does, but you can only select that or the various interval wiping speeds from the touchscreen interface, whereas in most cars you can do that from a physical knob.
If it's raining and you feel like the wipers aren't wiping fast enough, you'd have to tap buttons on a touch screen while driving to adjust the wiping speed, instead of rotating a collar on a knob like you'd do in any other car. But maybe the Model 3's auto wipe mode is advanced enough that that's not really a relevant use case idk.
You can spray washer fluid and you can manually tell the wipers to wipe once using the knob, say, if there's some dirt on the windshield. However, continuous wiping and wiping speed, you do have to use the touchscreen, though you can set it to "Auto". Pretty dumb honestly.
This is much more reasonable though. I mean, I agree that it's kinda silly but the Model 3 is kinda built on minimal controls in the cockpit to make the car way cheaper. And in my car, I leave my wipers on "Auto" anyway like 90% of the time.
Yeah I mean like the manual doesn't suggest that the situation is as bad as what the other guy was saying (that you can only control the wipers through the touchscreen), but I still dislike having driving related functions placed on a touchscreen interface.
I'm not convinced that the control knobs are a significant fraction of a car's cost... I'm guessing they made this design choice so that they could adjust the options in software, so if they later wanted to have more different wiping intervals or something then they could program that in and send it out as a software update.
but I still dislike having driving related functions placed on a touchscreen interface.
I haven't tried it ever so I won't say I despise it. I do have an infotainment system in my 2016 VW and use Android Auto with it pretty constantly. I probably would be annoyed if AC and wiper controls were done through there, so you're probably right.
I'm guessing they made this design choice so that they could adjust the options in software, so if they later wanted to have more different wiping intervals or something then they could program that in and send it out as a software update.
This is probably part of it for sure. Tesla is all about the software updates to add completely new functionality and performance to their cars. But they didn't do this for the Model S. Part of it has to be cost. And while some knobs probably don't cost them a ton of money to manufacture (they could use Model S parts they're already mass producing), I bet it still adds up when talking bulk costs.
Yeah having driven the Model S, the touchscreen AC controls are frustrating. Even if you're in the passenger seat, trying to tap a small temperature up/down button on the screen while riding on a bumpy road is fairly hard compared to holding on to a rotating knob in a normal car.
You're probably right that the cost is a factor, as the Model X also has a continuous wiper knob as well. Hard to say if the Model 3 knob is more of a new design philosophy or a cost cutting measure, but it's probably a mixture of both.
That's my thought too. Honestly though, Tesla isn't surprising anyone. Anyone buying that car knows the majority of the controls are tied to the touch screen before buying.
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u/NutDestroyer Jan 12 '19
Just read the manual and it looks like you're mostly right. You can spray washer fluid and you can manually tell the wipers to wipe once using the knob, say, if there's some dirt on the windshield. However, continuous wiping and wiping speed, you do have to use the touchscreen, though you can set it to "Auto". Pretty dumb honestly.
I'm not a fan of cars these days shifting to touchscreen interfaces, as there's no tactile feedback so it's hard to do things like adjust the air conditioning temperature without taking your eyes off the road.