Dipped beams = too bright , auto wipers = arghh, rear saloon wipers = ?!?!

ttaskmaster said:
On the fleet vehicles with these fitted, you turn up the sensitivity lever from 0-3. That basically decides when it activates the wipers in heavy, medium or light rain. The wipers come on at normal speed. If you don't want them on, switch it to 0.
You have manual control between single wipe, off, intermittent, normal and fast.
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This sounds like the worst system in the world. Infact I'd question as to whether it even counts as proper rain sensing wipers.

I was just unfortunate that BMW employ clueless idiots to implement their auto-lighting...
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Why are they 'clueless idiots'?
 
Why on earth would any modern car have wipers like that when proper auto wipers which vary the speed depending on the amount of water hitting the screen were fitted to Toyotas in 2004? :p
 
[TW]Fox;30377314 said:
This sounds like the worst system in the world. Infact I'd question as to whether it even counts as proper rain sensing wipers.
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It senses rain....

[TW]Fox;30377314 said:
Why are they 'clueless idiots'?
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If your auto-dipping lights don't auto-dip fast enough to avoid blinding oncoming traffic, which is the point, that's hardly the pinacle of genius, is it?

Acme said:
Why on earth would any modern car have wipers like that when proper auto wipers which vary the speed depending on the amount of water hitting the screen were fitted to Toyotas in 2004? :p
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Apparently ours aren't considered modern, as they're 3+ years old...
 
ttaskmaster said:
On the fleet vehicles with these fitted, you turn up the sensitivity lever from 0-3. That basically decides when it activates the wipers in heavy, medium or light rain. The wipers come on at normal speed. If you don't want them on, switch it to 0.
You have manual control between single wipe, off, intermittent, normal and fast.
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That sounds rather rubbish, to be fair. What car is this? Neither of the cars I've had with auto-wipers (one from 2007, one from 2014) have been like that, they've got the sensitivity control but they'll vary the wiper speed accordingly too.

ttaskmaster said:
I just want to have the choice in such matters.
For example, I doubt even the most sophisticated system will detect a car through the treeline round the corner and decide to dip the lights early, whereas I can...
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Probably true, but then I find I'm blinded by high beams head-on from cars that clearly don't have HBA than those that might. Obviously the number of cars out there with HBA are probably quite low but the idea the driver can do everything better than the car can isn't quite true. People make mistakes.
 
I turned my auto lights and wipers on when I was driving home from picking the car up in September and haven't touched them since. The wipers are faultless. Sure the lights come on occasionally when it's still a bit light for them but is that really a problem? I don't think so. The convenience far outweighs any negative anyway.

Come to think of it out of all the "auto" stuff on the car it's the dimming rear view mirror that I have issues with. I find it occasionally dims too much at the wrong times so I can barely see if there is anything behind.
 
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TheVoice said:
That sounds rather rubbish, to be fair. What car is this?
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Vauxhall Astravans from around 2010.

TheVoice said:
Probably true, but then I find I'm blinded by high beams head-on from cars that clearly don't have HBA than those that might.
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Like I said earlier - Fine, fine, auto everything and be done with it.
I'm clearly in the minority and we're about to get self-driving cars anyway, so it's all pretty pointless, I guess.

TheVoice said:
but the idea the driver can do everything better than the car can isn't quite true. People make mistakes.
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But there are also times when people DO know better.
 
robj20 said:
I turn my auto headlights off, turns them on way too early. It's a con for bulb manufacturers and garages to make you need new bulbs more often.
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What would you do if you had a modern Mercedes then? :confused:

cCIxuyJ.jpg
 
ttaskmaster said:
If your auto-dipping lights don't auto-dip fast enough to avoid blinding oncoming traffic, which is the point, that's hardly the pinacle of genius, is it?
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Can you clarify what feature you are actually talking about?

Is it:

a) Automatic Headlight Activation (Fitted to almost every car now)
b) Xenon/LED headlights with automatic self levelling (Very common)
c) Automatic High Beam Assistant (Comparatively rare)

We might have half a chance if it didn't seem like you were randomly confusing various features.
 
Acme said:
Why on earth would any modern car have wipers like that...
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They don't. I suspect the wipers in the astravan work very similar to other auto wipers on the market, but he doesn't know how to use them, i.e. set headlights to Auto and wipers on intermittent.
 
I remember when I moaned about the auto mode climate in my Corolla being rubbish and Fox told me I was using it wrong, then I Googled it, and I was using it wrong :( :p
 
Turns out he is talking rubbish, from the Vauxhall Astra owners manual:

Automatic wiping $: the rain sensor
detects the amount of water on the
windscreen and automatically regulates
the windscreen wiper.
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Just like every other system. No idea what he's on about, to be honest I'm surprised the Astravan has rain sensing wipers as it was an option on the hatch - I suspect it hasn't got them.
 
Reading his description again, it does just sound like it has intermittent wipers with different speed selections. :p
 
To the couple of posts reference lights leveling. You do know that lights do not auto-level as you drive along right?
The leveling systems simply wouldn't be able to react quick enough - your lights would be going all over the place every time you went over even the slightest bump.
The lights auto-level at engine-on, depending on what you've got in the car, etc.
They don't continuously adjust as you're driving.
 
stoofa said:
To the couple of posts reference lights leveling. You do know that lights do not auto-level as you drive along right?
The leveling systems simply wouldn't be able to react quick enough - your lights would be going all over the place every time you went over even the slightest bump.
The lights auto-level at engine-on, depending on what you've got in the car, etc.
They don't continuously adjust as you're driving.
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I don't think anyone said otherwise? This is how they work indeed and my posts were in reference to this also.
 
There appear to be a number of different categories of obnoxious lights to me:
  • Lights too bright and poorly aligned, for instance Range Rovers and some Mercedes
  • Lights suffering from "purple shift": new Minis and Nissan Qashqais
  • Chavvy, retrofitted "blue" lights with poor focus
 
roadie said:
There appear to be a number of different categories of obnoxious lights to me:
  • Lights too bright and poorly aligned, for instance Range Rovers and some Mercedes
  • Lights suffering from "purple shift": new Minis and Nissan Qashqais
  • Chavvy, retrofitted "blue" lights with poor focus
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add citroen's to the purple shift, had one today that was dull purple, yellow pulsar, dull purple etc as it went along.
 
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