The simple, clever sensor behind automatic windshield wipers 

I had had my company car for three months, before I RTFM, and discovered it had a 6 disk CD changer hidden in the boot / trunk...

I'm a nerd I give it a solid flip through the first week😅

I read manuals for cars I don’t even own, but am really interested in. It’s a good way to know all the useful little features the cars/devices have. Side note- I especially hate how so many companies are making the goddamn user manuals web-only, the whole point of a manual is you don’t need a network connection to look something up. I miss pdf manuals. Edit to add clarity- They don’t even have an option to download a pdf version, it’s just a link for the online manual. It’s much more clumbersome to jump back and forth between sections

@@Highraven I read mine online before buying my car so I knew how to test drive it and what the features were.

@@Highraven - and for my car the delivery was delayed for a week from the agreed date. Reading the manual calmed my nerves.

Enjoy it. It may never happen again.

You say as you post a comment to strangers on the internet arguing that you have a life. Who exactly are you trying to convince?

You mean to say you don't watch all the one hour'ish videos on one go? Do I have too much time on my hands?

Why did I read it with Technology Connections' voice😂

This video was posted a day ago yet the video is only a hour old, how?

Me too hahhahahahha

Why 8:50? The hood covering the blades gives you quite a bit more efficiency and therefore range, ist smart design. And the button to service the blades is literally right in the service menu in the car, couldn’t be much easier. The decision to not use a rain sensor however is borderline stupid, wipers don’t work well on Teslas now since 7 years and counting

Tesla doesn’t even rain sensing wipers?? Lol

@@GHN1013 They do not have sensors to save money. It's estimated they cost less than $10.

@@PopsGG “To save money”?? And that’s pathetic excuse from Tesla. For a car that’s $60-130k?? More reasons why Tesla should never be considered an “luxury” brand. What other amenities are they missing?

Same. I even made my husband watch it so when he starts the dishwasher, he does the same! Now if only I can convince him to pay attention to the rinse aid getting low...

The dishwasher episode was epic. I've learned so much and my dishes are really cleaner now.

Dishwasher video actually changed my life. I’m sure my machine isn’t very high quality but it gets caked on food off all of my dishes so good now that I’m using it properly.

Wait what? What video is that, seems interesting and I can't find it :/

You do realize how much work even a short video like this takes? This isn’t tiktok he doesn’t use a selfie cam and record himself love for 11 minutes then say he’s done for the day. This video even though short probably took weeks of not months to put together if he did it himself. From filing to editing, to audio mixing, graphics that all takes a lot of time if you do it yourself. Not to mention the RU-vid algorithm is probably top of his mind. While it’s not exactly known how it works shorter videos are far more likely to be recommended because they are more likely to be watched to completion which Netflix has said is the ONLY criteria they care about so it would make sense RU-vid follows a similar format since they do similar medium. So I praise him for making such a high quality video especially if all of it was done by himself. And if you want longer videos there a simple solution give him 60,000 every year so he can afford an editor so he has more free time to make longer videos.

I just opened my hood when I got to this problem.

If it's not on Google it doesn't exist.

As the last resort? It should be your first resort, especially if you haven't read it. It's often a lot more useful than you might think.

As an engineer I spend the majority of my time reading the manual, or more formally datasheet. So I feel like it's more the first than the last resort.

@@ElusiveDino *That'sTheJoke.jpg*

Technology? Connected.

So here we are at the age old question: What came first, the pulse oxymeter or the automatic wind shield wiper?

⁠@@andreasu.3546 pulse oxymeter. First one was from 72, first automatic wipers were sold 96

"I bet I could fit a bi-metallic strip in that windshield."

@@erebostd first auto wipers were sold in 1970, but also pulse oximeters were merely commercialized in 72-75 - the technique was invented in 1937! it just took a while for technology to get them small / accurate / cheap enough to make it into health care at scale.

Amendment: I always read the manual for new products I buy

For some things I will read the manual before I buy the product. This often clears up the information that the companies marketing department provides. Usually there are a few things that marketing/ advertisements says that are slightly misleading.

Need audio books

Why would I read it when I can call you and make you explain it to me wagie

@@AgentOffice Audible moment

I totally didn't catch that, I though he was just making a non sequitir.

I read this comment at exactly the same time as that bit of the video!

*wipe screen

Blindsided, as in from the side you cannot see.

1:01 if anyone is looking for it

Ha! I think that might be referring to parking outside during freezing rain. You have to put your wipers up, or they're freeze to the bottom of the windshield and take forever to thaw.

That's one thing I love about my Tesla: Wiper Service Mode is just right there in the Service menu. Easy to find. Easy to use. Easy to disable when you're done swapping out the wiper blades.

@@coredumperror but you have to admit, Vision based auto wipers is still crap. I'd take a proper rain sensor over slightly easier blade replacement any day.

@@R.Daneel In my experience, owner's manuals use the most obscure terms for normal things making it hard to lookup anything. Example: Let's lookup turn signal replacement and eventually stumble across "intermittent directional lamp disassembly"

I remember many decades ago spending ages looking for the software code pretty-printer that was listed under "grind out elegant listings"

Too bad Citroën cars are not sold in the United States of America, and I don't know of any 1990s US market cars with rain sensors.

Citroën had always been innovative. Sometimes too much for their own good.

@@Filip_Phreriks They are so brilliant that they had solutions to even non-existing problems. One of my favorites is that the magnificent DS had real-time self adjusting height correction on the headlights....on a car that also has self leveling suspension. I mean, it´s a good idea for headlights to not jump up and down when you go over bumps. But then again, I have yet to see the DS jump at all on any bumps. You can actually take a speed bump way too fast in a DS with a glass of water on the dash without even upsetting the water. Gotta love them...

Haha I didn’t even get that. Thank you!

Spit out some juice when I said that XD

Was really hoping he would say through the magic of buying 2 (cars)of them😂😂

​@@storybook8020 He's gonna need a lot more patreon subscribers to make that particular dream a reality.

I totally missed that 😢

definitely the latter

Hahaha, same here... so frustrating. And asking other people lead to many different, and apparently wrong answers.

How does a rain sensor work? It senses rain! Okay.. But how does it sense rain? It does it automatically! ............

Ah yes. Google is completely useless these days. ChatGPT performs quite a bit better, but is still somewhat vague about the specifics. Nothing beats a well-made video like this where someone did some actual effort, in spite of the Effortstat™.

this is why i love gen AI and AI search engines, I just asked copilot which answered it perfectly. it works so well for those random questions. but always keep in mind it can just make up stuff, so trust but verify

Honestly sucks how much worse Google has gotten as a search engine since even when I was a kid

Well, tesla isn't the only car company trying to make the cabin look more futuristic by moving controls into the infotainment system, or using touch surface buttons... it's also cheaper than actual knobs and buttons... But it's so annoying to the driver, especially if that driver is old enough to have the muscle memory. It's all good and convenient with cars that try to help you driving. But there will be cases where it's nice to be able to override the fancy stuff, and preferably without removing your eyes from traffic. Leave my gear selector alone, let me manually override lights, blinkers and wipers. And give me a knob for volume and climate control. Let me engage, disengage and adjust cruise control without lifting a hand from the steering wheel. I also like how Hyundai use paddles to adjust regeneration and how Audi lets you change drive mode while driving, so you can switch to ECO when you enter a town, or you see the battery level disappearing faster than you planned. Don't make me pull over so I can adjust everything for the further journey in the infotainment system. And don't try to make me try voice control... as a non-native English speaker I'm sure that I pronounce some words incorrectly, and the Danish voice recognition isn't as well trained as the English one. When that rant is out, I'll agree that it looks nice and sleek with all that touch and simplified controls... it's just not very practical.

@@BenjaminVestergaardI think he’s more alluding to the lack of auto-wipe sensors in current Tesla models, since they moved to a pure camera implementation that, frankly, is just awful and doesn’t work. All to save a few bucks per car.

@@mobibobobobobobobvobobo well, tesla also made away with the radar and ultrasound sensors... all camera based now... I can't imagine that working very well for very long during a Danish winter if we have snow, because we spread salt on slippery roads. It creates a nice sticky sleet along the edge of the road, and during snowfall, that stuff builds up and you need to use sprinklers on your windscreen for it to remain clear. I've experienced that sleet build up to get so bad that the radar didn't even work after an hour on the highway, and the camera based lane assist was not exactly reliable either. That was a Hyundai I think. Edit: but I'm sure that Teslas all-camera system works pretty well in sunny California.

@@BenjaminVestergaard Tesla headlight alignment also doesnt work properly, also relying on the camera. Automatic MOT fail.

"As a Tesla Model X owner, I appreciate all the little jabs at no organization in particular".

Wetness does not need to take long

@@sth128👀🤣

That's the power of an Effortstat (set to Low).

And it is not even November! How cool is that!

The watch time alone would nearly make it impossible to keep up! Thank goodness for the effortstat

… through the magic of watching two of them…

But no "I bought a second one..."

@@reinhard8053 In this case, it's the rain sensor engineers that used The Magic Of Buying Two Of Them™

@@reinhard8053 Yeah. I was expecting "but through the magic of buying 2 of them" with some car part whipped out from under the desk throughout the video, and left a bit disappointed.

No! You're wrong! Alec shouldn't be allowed to use that doodad, he should make long videos. This video would have been better if he'd bought 2 cars, just to dismantle 1 to get to the components. (Isn't sarcasm fun...)

It should be the intro for each video So you know what you're getting in to... 😂

It’s against code to put an effort dial on an outlet! I should know, I’m NOT a licensed electrician.

@@loranmoore57 I disagree. There's a lot of resistance in that switch! It's something to write ohm about.

@@retrogiftsuk4812 Alec just stuck a few labels to a demonstration gadget he made for a previous video.

It's not even "no effort November".

ha ha ha elon bad

i have one, they are garbage

Absolutely garbage auto wipers. My model 3 wipes when it's sunny and doesn't wipe enough when it's pouring

I have a brand new refreshed model 3, and I will happily admit that they are currently absolutely garbage. There are rumors of an upcoming update to improve them, but I am not holding my breath for it. They trigger at the appropriate time for me, but often at the wrong speed (light rain, and they are going crazy, heavy rain, and they are too slow). The one remark I will commend them on, is that they are easily controller via the buttons on the steering wheel in my case.

​@@squidikkaI see a diamond nepo baby fan getting salty lol

Ask her how to change the windshield wipers on an aircraft carrier, my bridge windows are getting disgracefully smudged.

@@Jedocesque Some might see this as a joke, but aircraft carriers do have window wipers, but unlike many ships, it's all around the tower as they need to see everything on the deck, not just where they are going.

@@Jedocesque As I understand it, changing the wipers on an aircraft carrier is easy. Mention the situation to a Petty Officer and he'll tell an E-2 to do it.

Good to know, if I get mine replaced I'll tell them not to worry about it.

@@iunnox666 Have fun with shitty windshield wiper behavior, then.

​@@coredumperrorHe's implying he doesn't care about auto wipers, probably because his don't work well anyway so he just uses manual. Tldr, that's the joke

I used to deliver parts to a used car dealership's garage. They bought a Tesla to flip once and swore they'll never touch them again because if you replace the windshield you have to pay Tesla a couple thousand dollars to send somebody out to program the windshield.

​@@craigslist6988just because they don't care doesn't mean that their car doesn't care.

Who knew? Instructions and owner's manuals contain information about the product with which they are included. Mind blown.

@@bobmahnamahknob That's not entirely a given in the age of cheap Chinese products with Google Translated pieces of paper intended to give the illusion of a useful manual.

​@@KevinDayit's less about giving the illusion and more about following the law with the least amount of effort possible.

Sometimes

​@@bobmahnamahknob A lot of stuff doesn't come with useful manuals any more, especially when it comes to computer systems, documentation is a lost art.

Don't ignore the manuals. Or the Manuels.

I was so ready for him to say "I don't know!" after asking whether it's explained in the manual.

Rtfm at work

Me: How do I fix that? You: RTFM Me: I guess I will search RU-vid.

let's be real here, that person probably said automagically, because the people who are the highly-educated types rarely think of the elegantly simple solutions.

​@@CrisperPoetlol?

And then they decided to use The Magic Of Buying Two Of Them to enhance its effectiveness...

In an amazing quest to use 1 dollar to charge 200 additional, as always. At least until it's nothing special and everyone starts adding them.

@@CrisperPoet You've never been in a room full of engineers, have you? They absolutely LOATHE marketing speak and will openly play "buzzword bingo" to mock them. People who are highly STEM educated, and seasoned in their field, absolutely obsess over making solutions as elegant and simple as possible. It's the social "science", management, marketing and economics people who think in fluffy, emotional and fictitious terms.

but that takes more effort than just pushing a stalk.

@@ashliehigginshe’s referring to the service button which presents the wipers for maintenance

@@ashliehiggins Sure, if you have any idea how to do it. Alec specifically bashed his Ioniq 5 for hiding the method of turning on wiper service mode in the manual. Teslas put that method right there in the Service menu.

@@coredumperror You're supposed to read the manual before operating the car, on two of my cars I found it out accidently and now test if every car I drive does it.

And then you get a software-update that says "Upgrade now to enable whiper-change mode".

also I in no forms am a mechanic, I just learn as I go, the manual and youtube have been my biggest teachers

I know a guy who basically made this a second job. He advertised himself as a maintenance guy for any appliance in people's home, had no qualification for it, but he just got the manual for anything people brought to him and used it to "repair" them for a fee. I put repair in quotes because sometimes it was just people doing proper maintenance on their stuff because they didn't know they had to maintain itXD

​@I don't think of this as a scam, he's actually earning his keep providing a necessary service. As someone who used to earn my living as a "field engineer" (highfalutin term for repairman with a car). From many years of experience I can assure you that 99 times out of 100 It isn't the device that needs repairing, it's the customer.

Being an IT specialist opened my eyes to reading manuals/documentation. As a kid/teen I loved to dig around and test out different stuff an felt like a genius when I figured it out all by myself, but nowadays I understand that that's actually a stupid approach, where you're just stumbling around in the dark trying random things, only to invent the wheel again after hours of trial and error when you could have simply read some instructions and built your wheel in a few minutes. And that's just in the best case! Quite often you will not achieve anything, or you mess up some settings and don't know how to revert it back, or in the worst case, you end up breaking something that may or not be repairable. It's really mind boggling how people always think not reading the manual would be the smart thing to do! 🤦 I'm seeing this confirmed right now with my switch from Windows 10 to Linux on my gaming PC that I've made 10 days ago. I've always been using Windows, but got really frustrated with Microsoft's shift away from a user-focused UX towards pushing their own services and third party programs/services on a commission onto the user, regardless of the user's preference settings. Because of that, I've been considering jumping OS for years, but dreaded the experience of having to re-learn using a computer from the ground up on the new OS. I tried Linux a few years ago, tried to get everything running on my own and it was horrible, so I went back to Windows. This time though, I religiously stick to instructions from how-to's and forum posts and it's been nothing but smooth sailing and I can't even imagine going back to Windows anymore! Granted, there are other factors at play, like choosing a flavor of good old, well supported Ubuntu, rather than a fairly new distro that was Arch-based if I recall correctly and the fact that software and game compatibility (as well as the availability of good online instructions, I reckon) has improved tremendously since then, but sticking to existing guides/solutions, rather than just reading the basics of what I'm trying to do and then attempting to make my own, highly custom solution (with barely any knowledge of the OS) definitely plays a big part in the switch to Linux being a complete success this time!

@@LRM12o8 man [whatever] is a beautiful thing. I remember once having trouble on a Win10 machine connecting to the internet, and the help button in the settings page literally opened an Edge tab with a Bing search for "Windows 10 help connecting to the internet" (or similar terms). I couldn't help but laugh, it was so bad.

I was impressed years ago when I got onto a unix system (real unix, as linux hadn't come along at that point) and was poking at the manual when a thought occurred to me. I typed "man man" and sure enough, some elder nerd had taken the time to explain how to use the user's manual! Bliss. :-)

We have this problem with brand new cars. If you get a tiny speck of dirt on that gel at all, or like a fingerprint or if you drop it on the ground and then try to install it it will not work. Source: I put this piece on cars all day.

I was also wondering how windshield replacement was going to affect this. I'm sure it's not just a "shady" replacement company, but any company as getting the right kind of gel and the correct amount, must be tricky.

@@BryTee You're close, they come with the little gel layer already on them and a little plastic cap covering it that you must carefully remove without touching the gel. Ours are manufactured by hella, and we get them I think for $12 a piece. When we get one that doesn't work they just swap the whole sensor out. But I bet at the dealer these things are over $100.

@@JasonHenderson @BryTee In this case I'm happy to report that the sensor was just not clipped in on one side! I have to assume that the technician who installed the sensor didn't clipped it in fully and that over time it detached. The gel was apparently undamaged as I tested the sensor and everything seems to work fine! No bubble or anything after checking with a photo.

Can we please get him a job at Tesla?

@@RichardBrooklyn Why are we mean to him already? Perhaps he's a good guy.

@@DM-rc4yu good one 🤣

@@DM-rc4yu he can give them the rain sensor stuff, then leave, quick in and out. 2 days tops.

​@@RichardBrooklynmake sure to promise Elon is securely away on vacation for those days

Sometimes it's good thing, sometimes i wonder why they bothered with a paper and not just slapped QR code somewhere on the box. On another hand, maybe they think if someone needs quick start guide the can't figure out how to scan a code.

Oh no, now he can ctrl+f for the info he is looking for and find it quickly - I am disgusted !

@@horrorhotel1999 both is good- it wouldn't kill the manufacturer's documentation department to use the same file they generate the print run from to generate an online version.

My Ford ranger has absolutely nothing automatic, even the transmission. It's awesome.

It might be tied into the Auto-Start system. My Edge will turn off the A/C as well if its activated, until it starts getting warm again.

My neighbor's Honda Odyssey will automatically turn on the back wiper if the front wipers are on when you put it in reverse.

@@NamesGolden Same. I do got power brakes & power steering though, but no electric mirrors or locks.

@@radbaron No Auto stop / start on my one, I always thought if the wipers were switched on the headlights should just come on automatically for safety

What car is that? Impossibru with the schematics.

And it's only probably 100 pages long. I have an old car like that. It even has 1980s first aid instructions and how to use the dealer accessories.

Technical writers are cool. They should get more respect. 🙂

Sir, that's not a manual, that's a tutorial for how to build the car from scratch

Times have changed. I miss old user manuals. Even consumer electronics had schematics in them. Nowadays I'm surprised if I can get schematics for industrial equipment

I more tend to argue with it when it's not raining much at all. As Alec said, the workaround to "not wiping enough" is to either dial the sensitivity up, or just put it on continuous wiping. If it's wiping too much even at lowest sensitivity, you have to basically turn the wipers off and manually trigger them each time. And salt/sand on the windshield will make this worse every time. I wish there was some way to trigger an old-school "intermittent" mode. Or at least give the wiper control some feedback that "no, that's still too sensitive; even lower sensitivity than that."

@@Nimelennar you might need to dive deep into the settings of your car, my car's sensor doesn't work (as in wouldn't wipe at all beyond the initial wipe when turning them into a higher sensitivity setting) and I could change them to time-interval deep in the settings Of course that won't let you switch between them easily

​​@@NimelennarThey all suck and wipe too little especially when it's bot raining a lot. it should use the camera as a secondary sensor

@@ratchet1freak Thanks, but my car doesn't have a settings menu. The most technologically advanced feature my car has is Bluetooth. I think I might be able to get the rain-sensing sensitivity tuned at the car dealership, but it's not worth the hassle.

​@@Nimelennarwhat car model do you have? You sparked the inquisitive part of my brain and now I want to find out if your car has the option to (somewhat easily) change that setting.

Don’t worry actually laughing audibly in public is normal, even if it happens by yourself! 😋

I had a model 3, now a model y. The auto wipers and auto high beams suck so much compared to my previousl 2018 chevy equinox lol

Yep my model 3’s auto wipers suck😕

@@tffkap Yeah my X is dreadful. I've learned to tap the windshield-squirt button to get it to trigger. And then sometimes it goes superfast for no good reason....

⁠​⁠@@tffkapHad a 2014 Model S that had a rain sensor and the auto wipers worked great (Better that the BMW I had before that). Now I have a 2018 Model S and as long as it is bright outside it works well enough, but once it gets slightly dimmer it has to be controlled manually. Only redemption must be that it still has stalks. As for auto high beams at least here in Europe Model Y and 2021 and newer Model 3s have adaptive headlights that only blacks out sections of the high beams to not dazzle oncoming traffic.

I was wondering how this joke was going to be incorporated

I actually expected the "Two of Them” kitten meme but then I remembered this was Technology Connections, not Cathode Ray Dude! 🤣🤣

I'm glad I got my IONIQ 5 before they start including that ugly rear wiper! 🤣

Through the magic of buying two of them...

Exact same situation here, down to the borrowing of my mom's car because mine is broken. I was so curious. When I saw this I got so excited!

I was surprised he missed that one as well.

It's No-effort Not-november. :)

Don’t. I have sold a car because of shitty automatic wipers and went back to old school. These days even old shitboxes have automatic wipers so I spend a lot of money each time e buy something new to change the software and give me old school adjustable interval wipers.

​@@autobootpilootMy 2002 Prius doesn't have automatic wipers or automatic headlights. My 2012 Accord has automatic headlights but no automatic wipers.

It's more than likely in 3-7 languages, and the index likely takes up a good chunk of it to boot

When I buy a vehicle, I figure I’m buying a tool multi-function tool worth tens of thousands of dollars. Its two most basic functions are to drive places and to keep its occupants acceptably comfortable and reasonably protected. Other than the very most basic driving controls like the wheel and pedals, every model has differences between every other. Aside from wheels and pedals, most other controls crucial for driving-your lights, signals, wipers, mirror/seat/wheel adjustment, and the Park/Reverse/Go thingy-all of that can vary widely in form and function. Everything else-everything related to comfort, convenience, entertainment, and even basic maintenance-well, nothing is standardized at all. It might as well be anarchy. So I figure, when I spend thousands or tens of thousands on a new or used vehicle, it’s absolutely worth it to go through the owner’s manual so I can be sure I don’t miss any features on this incredibly complex and expensive thing. I like to know what I have and how to use it-all of it. I paid for all the features, so damned if I’m not going to use (or at least try) all the features.

@@HmmmmmLemmeThinkNo Rav4 Prime or PHEV (in EU) single language manual

Thankfully, most major car companies have the manual available online and easily searchable. But you still need a paper manual for emergencies.