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I've had many cars over the years. Many supercars when they were new. Some big foreign jobs with 3 and 4 letter names. Mostly sticks, but a few autos in the right car combination (like the big wedge Mopars if any of you all can remember them and why a Torqueflite was the hot setup). I can still drive as well and as far as most (recent 14 hr solo jaunt from MD to mid FL). I can drive well, enjoy driving and cars. That said....
A car we bought a few years ago came w the rain sensing wipers. It is not why we bought this car. They were just there. I gradually got used to them and now turn them on (YES they must be turned on manually to start) 80-90% of the time. We use this setting BECAUSE they work well, much better than constantly adjusting the pace of manually controlled intermittents. If constantly adjusting the wiper setting is 'driving' to you it is OK with me.
We recently bought another new car. On the first long, rainy trip, both I and my wife said we missed the auto sensing wipers.
If you don't like em don't buy em but for cripe's sake why the need to insult those who like em? I don't get it. (BTW the 2005 car's wipers are chugging along just fine.)
It's not laziness, but conditioning toward the day when we will no longer drive our cars, they will do the driving for us. Examine all the passive safety features that are for accident avoidance, all the electronic controls, and some not so passive systems such as self-parking.
imagine. a car driving itself. while we are perfectly capable. driving is part of life for me. if i wanted to be driven, i'd hire a driver
imagine. a car driving itself. while we are perfectly capable. driving is part of life for me. if i wanted to be driven, i'd hire a driver
oh, what pawns we have become :/
I don't see exactly how accepting that the sensor far more actively controlling the wiper speed, allowing you to focus purely on the driving takes away from the experience of ...driving, or how it makes you any less of a driver.
I don't see exactly how accepting that the sensor far more actively controlling the wiper speed, allowing you to focus purely on the driving takes away from the experience of ...driving, or how it makes you any less of a driver.
no i wasn't talking about the wipers. i was talking about how the guy mentioned moving toward the day of automated transpo by car
My dad has rain-sensing wipers on his 5-series and they're really a godsend in So Cal weather where it kind of drizzles intermittently. I'm sure in other parts of the US where you get steady downpours it's a bit useless since you just need to hit on or off. But here we tend to get misting & fogging & sprinkles that vary from one zip code to the next, so in the course of an hour-long commute you may be constantly fiddling with the wipers as you plod along in traffic on the freeway.
OK, does anyone have this on their car? I know a lot of Mazdas have it for instance. For those of you who do have it -- am I missing something here? Is there really some benefit to it other than you don't have to move your fingers two inches from the steering wheel to a stalk to turn on the wipers in inclement weather?
Have we really gotten that lazy? I mean, I already have built-in rain sensors, it's called MY EYEBALLS. So if anyone has it and finds it indispensable, please explain to me what I'm missing.
I'm late to the thread here, but I couldn't agree more.
They are a pain in the arse- that's a technical expression.
I want control over them.
If they do a sweep at the first sign of damp you can end up with a great smear across the windscreen. Better to let it get properly wet and then clear it.
I have a 03 Z4 and I like my automatic wipers, though I usually have them off since when you have the wipers on there's a brake drying mechanism, since it thinks you think its raining, makes sense, but if it is not raining and you have the auto wipers active the brake drying mechanism is still on - even if the wipers aren't going.
Kinda stupid, but nothing's perfect.
I like the functionality of them except in the wispy drizzle that we get in Seattle. That's when I manually turn them on the lowest setting. In all other kinds of rain, it only wipes when I need it to, and more wiping to me means more distraction from driving.
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