In the previous post I explained why my Model YL runs on plain cruise control rather than Autosteer.
That setup has one problem, and it is the cruise control auto wipers.
Engage cruise control on a Tesla, the wipers switch themselves to Auto. Even when you have deliberately turned them off.
Cruise control auto wipers are not a bug
Wiper settings live on the Controls screen. Set them to Off, they should stay off.
Engage cruise control from that state, though, they flip to Auto on their own.
This is not a fault. It is documented. Tesla’s owner’s manual says that when Autosteer is engaged, adaptive headlights come on, plus “wipers are set to Auto”.
Autosteer does exactly the same thing to the wipers. What matters is that the manual only says this under Autosteer. The cruise control page never mentions wipers at all. Yet cruise control alone still flips them.
Owners on the US forums report the same thing without an FSD subscription. The behaviour is said to date from software 2025.20.6, plus it is alive on my 2026.20.6.1.
These features watch the road through the cameras, so wanting a clean windscreen makes sense.
With Autosteer there is a second one: auto high beam comes on as well, which you cannot switch off while Autosteer is running. Wipers you can at least put back by hand, so the headlights are the more committed of the two. Headlights are untouched by cruise control, incidentally. That part is Autosteer only.
The wipers move on dry glass
The real problem is how accurate the auto wipers are.
Leave them on Auto on the motorway, roughly every 20 minutes they sweep for no reason. It is not raining. My guess is a bit of dirt somewhere on the glass.
Bugs are the worst of it. A dried-on insect smeared sideways across the screen makes visibility worse than leaving it alone.
Summer here turns a windscreen into a bug graveyard.
Cruise on, wipers off, every single time
So the wipers get run manually.
Set the cruise control, immediately switch the wipers off. Two actions welded into one. Doing it every trip is genuinely tedious.
The screen has a water repellent coating, so nothing short of heavy rain needs a wiper on the motorway. When I do need them, the steering wheel button gives me a single sweep, so there is no reason to be in Auto at all.
Having had a stone chip repaired on that same windscreen, I am extra careful with the glass. That post is here.
What I would like Tesla to change
Let me choose whether wipers go to Auto
Here is my wish list for the cruise control auto wipers. Cruise control, Autosteer, either way, let the automatic wiper switch be a setting.
Doing it for safety makes sense, so I am not asking for the feature to disappear. Making it optional would be enough. The same goes for auto high beam, which feels restrictive when it cannot be switched off mid-drive.
Improve the auto wiper accuracy itself
Sweeping with no water on the glass is the part that needs fixing.
Tesla is working on it. In spring 2026 a system arrived that estimates friction where the blade meets the glass from the wiper motor current, then reasons about what is on the screen. My car still sweeps dry.
The catch is that friction only exists once the blade moves. Nothing can be measured until current flows through the motor, so the car learns the glass was dry by wiping it first. It can stop the next sweep, it can trigger washer fluid, yet the first sweep still happens.
The first sweep is precisely what bothers me, so the judgement made before the blade moves is what needs the work.
Count what drivers actually do
Switching the wipers off right after engaging cruise control has to be logged on a huge number of cars, not just mine.
Add those up at Tesla’s end, it should be obvious whether the current behaviour is wanted, or cancelled by hand every time. Right now it adds one pointless action to every drive, so I would like it moved toward whichever way people actually use it.
Summary
- Cruise control auto wipers are unavoidable on the Model YL: engage cruise, they go to Auto
- It is documented, though only under Autosteer in the manual, never on the cruise control page
- Autosteer adds auto high beam on top, which cannot be switched off during use
- Even on clear days they sweep roughly every 20 minutes, smearing dried bugs across the glass
- So cruise on, wipers off, every single time
The driver assistance itself I have no complaint about. The cruise control auto wipers are the one thing that grates.
If it ever becomes a setting, I will write about it again.
This article is also available in Japanese.
