Wiper problems of the 2018 Tesla Model 3 - part 2

The backup camera and side view cameras are intermittently not displaying while reversing. The camera displays the trajectory lines, however, the image is totally black. There is no camera feed. This problem has remained, despite several software updates. The camera at times will freeze on a previous image, not the current 'live' image.

After entering my vehicle and initiating a trip to work recently in the late morning. I had activated my windshield wipers to clean my front windshield and after traveling less than a block I heard a crack like pop sound even though nothing had impacted the glass and suddenly a 4 inch crack appeared in the the top middle of the windshield. I had started the process of cleaning my windshield while I was in my driveway and then had proceeded to enter my community street on my way to work and before I had left my local neighborhood, approximately less than 200 feet the crack had occurred and I hadn't even accelerated past 15-20 mph. I though it strange that this happened as there were no other vehicles moving in the vicinity at the time and all I could think was possibly that the glass was super heated and the sprinkling of water on the windshield to wash it with the wipers may have contributed to the incident? it was a very bizarre occurrence.

I want to both report and complain about an incident that happened with me on December 14, 2019. I was traveling with my wife and two kids from vancouver, wa to my residence [xxx]. I was driving my Tesla Model 3 (bmx 2571) and the days before the car had a new update installed (that included improvements to wipers using some ai improvements). There was strong rain while driving on the I-5 freeway. The traffic speed was 70 mph. I was in the middle of a huge pack of cars all moving at the ~ 70 mph. What we encountered was- a) first wipers got locked (no movement et all), this reduced my visibility to almost zero and struggling to maneuver the car in the high speed traffic to avoid any accident. B) the car then went in some shutdown mode of display, both confusing me and leaving adrift as to how to handle the situation. It took both my wife and me some heroic effort to drive avoiding any accident until the car recovered (it was a period of ~30 sec which sounded like eternity for us) from this freeze, shutdown, and reboot. You can verify my claim as I did file a 'bug report' around that time. When talking of the anomalies, I have also seen that on freeways the autopilot has tried to put brakes all of a sudden in the past, thus creating life threatening situations. At all these occasions, I had filed 'bug reports' to help Tesla. However, latest incident is beyond my wildest imagination and concerning with respect to the safety of life while traveling in a Tesla car. Best, [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

When driving, the electrochomatic (auto-dimming) rear-view mirror and side-view mirrors only dim at a pre-determined time of day, which is long after it is dark out, and long after following vehicles have turned on their headlights. They revert back to normal (not darkened) long before sunrise. They do not respond at all to the following vehicle's headlights or to ambient light conditions. Along with this, there is a significant portion around the edges of the mirrors that never darken. There is no way for the driver to manually dim the mirrors. The only way to avoid being blinded by the following vehicle's head lights is to redirect the mirror, making the it useless. I brought this to the manufacturer's attention approximately one year ago. The service technician said it was a known issue and would be corrected via a software update. Although my vehicle's software has been updated many times, the issue with the mirrors has not been remedied. I have repeatedly reached out to the manufacturer regarding this issue and as of yet, no fix is in order. This issue is widely discussed in online forums, including the manufacturer's owners' forum. It appears that this issue occurs with all cars of this make and model. Owners' degree of upset seems related to whether they regularly drive just after sunset and/or just before sunrise.

I found a stress crack on my rear windshield, which the Tesla service center in san rafael, California denied was caused by a defect in the glass. My service associate, patrick gerety was particularly unhelpful and I am lodging a complaint directly with the manager of the center, aston martin (no, really), as well. Many other Tesla Model 3 car owners are experiencing failures in their rear windshields. Some are being replaced under warranty, but many - like mine - are being denied. In some cases, the failure seems to be associated with the rear windshield heating system. I had to pay for the replacement. I'm uploading a portion of the invoice along with this description. Note that the car was stationary at the time that the crack was detected.

Random crack appeared in late March, early April 2019 in middle of windshield ~4-5" long. No visible chip. After complaint that windshield cracked for no reason, we ended paying repair out of pocket. Service center didn't agree it as warranty item. Windshield replacement cost (total) was $1023. 26. Invoice number 3000s0000056579. Noticed 4" crack in middle/left side of back window on October 2020. Has taken car twice to repair and they don't agree it's warranty item again. No chip. There appears to be part quality issue or structural design flaw causing windows to crack.

When wipers are set to 'auto' mode, they are far too slow to react. Do to the manual mode requiring the touch screen to change, a novice to the system would have a very hard time changing to the wipers to work much faster. This would cause a very unsafe and hazards condition. As it is now, I do not feel safe letting anyone else drive this car in the rain.

The visibility in the side and rear view mirrors is very limited. The visual indicator for the turn signals is hard to hear and view in the central console, which is also causing distraction for the driver and taking away his attention from the road. There is also no warning indicator for the blind spots during lane changes and the console show only cars in front, but not on the side blind spots. Blinkers in the side-view mirrors for turn signals and blind spot vehicles like in Toyota and other models is much safer. This vehicle and model needs to be investigated and a possible recall should be made.

Our 2018 Tesla Model 3 has never provided a clear image of the rear camera feed. Especially at night time there are pink+green lines and color distortions covering the image that make it difficult to see and/or recognize objects in the path of rear travel or objects coming up fast from behind while driving straight with the rear camera feed enabled. Tesla has claimed these lines are a software bug that will be remedied with a future update since at least October of 2018, but after multiple software updates these same issues persist today. In summary, the rear camera feed is both grainy and obstructed by pink/green lines when reversing at night. . Read more...