There are 16 owner-reported visibility & wipers complaints for the 2021 Tesla Model 3in NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
-- Summarized Explanation The automatic windshield wiper system behaves unpredictably and creates unsafe driving conditions. Wipers frequently activate when there is no rain, operate at excessive speeds during light rain, and, most critically, fail to activate during active rainfall. These failures reduce driver visibility and increase the risk of a motor vehicle crash. Automatic wipers are forcibly enabled whenever cruise control or Autopilot is activated, regardless of weather conditions. This requires the driver to repeatedly adjust or disable the wipers while driving. Sudden transitions to maximum speed during light rain are distracting and divert attention from the roadway, increasing cognitive load during vehicle operation. -- Attempted Remedies •Replaced windshield wipers multiple times using different manufacturers •Cleaned forward-facing camera/rain detection area •Applied windshield water-repellent treatments •Installed approximately 30–50 over-the-air software updates over four years •Multiple inspections at Tesla-authorized service centers Tesla has consistently stated the system is operating “as intended,” despite continued unsafe behavior. -- Additional Notes There is no option to permanently disable automatic wipers when cruise control or Autopilot is enabled, nor any way to adjust sensitivity of the rain detection. Because the system repeatedly re-enables itself, the driver must divert attention from driving to manage wiper behavior, often multiple times during a single trip. This is especially hazardous when using standard cruise control without Autopilot, where full driver attention is required.
The interior rearview mirror exhibits tiny bubbles around the edges and streaking or cloudiness within the layered structure of the auto-dimming (electrochromic) mirror. The problem has occurred in multiple potential replacement mirrors, indicating a design or manufacturing defect. The issue first appeared as small bubbles around the outer edge, then progressed to visible streaking and cloudiness within the mirror surface. These symptoms impair rear visibility, particularly at night or in bright light conditions, when glare and distortion are most severe. This creates a safety hazard by: 1) Obstructing the driver’s clear view of approaching vehicles. 2.) Reducing reaction time Increasing the risk of rear-end collisions or unsafe lane changes. 3.) It compromises overall driver situational awareness, especially in high-speed or congested traffic environments. The defect is not isolated to a single part. Defective mirrors have been retained for documentation and are available for inspection. Mirror replaced with same part number under limited warranty, but the replacement option showed same failure, suggesting a broader defect not yet addressed by a permanent fix. Additional replacement parts offered show similar defects.
Rear window defroster is permanently broken. Tesla made 10 attempts to repair it over the past year+ and it is still not fixed. Under certain weather conditions, there is zero visibility through the rear window.
The defrost function on the computer went crazy and cracked the windshield in the morning, covered in snow. - It’s hard to see out of, and Tesla said it’s not covered even though it’s only 6 months old and to just drive it. - No, they want $1600 to look at it. I can’t get them to agree to look at it, but don’t give up. - no the defrost was slow and low, as winter is with no issues. So it snowed a lot in KC, MO. I keep my heat at 60 degrees and the fan on low. I unlocked my car with my phone to get some stuff out, but I started clearing off the back door stairs first to make a path. But only 10 minutes after unlocking it, I heard a loud pop. I thought it was electric, so I unplugged it and got in to leave and immediately was shocked to see and hear the heater on so high I didn’t know it went to that level. It had to have been 100 degrees in the car then before I even sat down… I saw the HUGE CRACK across the windshield from the bottom right passenger side, perfectly in the corner of the glass, going all the way to eye level in front of the driver. Diagonally, corner to corner. There isn’t a scratch or speck on this car. I hand wash it every week when it’s not freezing out. I keep the left scroll wheel programmed to control the fan speed, so I pushed it to lower the leaf blower setting it was on to find out it was still set to 60 and fan speed 2. I had to go up and down a few times to get it to go down to normal. I took a video and photos, and Tesla said repeatedly it’s going to cost $1600, even though I just bought it 6 months ago.
Auto windshield wipers do not turn on often when raining or misting. I constantly have to change the settings which takes my eyes off the road often. Very poor and unsafe system
Auto wipers do not speed up in heavy rain forcing me to manually change the speed which can be dangerous while driving on the highway in heavy rain.
The cruse control is unable to keep its speed and sometimes the vehicule breaks suddently on the highway, especially when the road is wet. The cameras are obstructed by mist or other dirt and the system does not work properly. Related to this problem, the wipers are dangerous to operate. When the cruse control is engaged, then the wipers are forced to automatic mode, which does not work properly. It could start to swipe the dirty mist and actually reduce visibility. Operating the wipers with the touch screen is a hazard, forcing the driver to leave the eyes from the road. I contacted Tesla about these problems last year and the company did nothing. Even worst, on their new cars they removed the stalks completely, which is a non sens. The NHTSA has to intervene.
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving in the rain, there was an auto rain-sensing feature on the vehicle that was inoperable. The contact stated that the front windshield wipers did not automatically turn on while it was raining and that the auto rain-sensing feature worked intermittently. The contact stated that the manufacturer was made aware of the unreliability of the auto rain-sensing feature, but stated it was a Beta feature. The contact stated that the risk was that there was no physical control for the front windshield wipers causing a safety issue because the contact could not engage the wipers safely when driving as it was not readily accessible via the entertainment panel when the auto rain-sensing was inoperable. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was diagnosed, but not repaired because there was no fix. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The failure mileage was unknown.
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V702000 (Visibility) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was not contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.
Tesla offers a blind spot camera, standard on the vehicle, which activates automatically when the turn-signal is active on the appropriate side. The blind-spot camera feed appears on the center screen. The feed comes from each of the side cameras mounted to the external portion of the car. Since the side turn-signal is mounted right above the same blind-spot cameras, the light from the turn-signal often 'bleeds' into the camera feed used by the driver to determine if the appropriate lane is clear. At night, this causes the blind-spot camera video difficult to view since the video feed alternates between 'normal' video and a bright, flushed out video, matching the turn-signal timer. The end result is often times I, the driver having difficulty observing cars on the side of my vehicle at night. More specifically, several times I have missed the headlights of cars in the lane next to me because the turn signal light, bleeding into the camera feed, obscure or hides the car and/or headlights (since they driver's eyes have to chateaubriand adjust between a bright andrark video feed flashing). This causes me to start merging into a lane which I believe is clear, only to have to quickly swerve back into my original lane when I realize the lane is not clear. Both the driver in the new lane and myself are put at risk, unnecessarily when this occurs. I have reached out to the manufacturer for this complaint. In writing, they have admitted this is a problem and even though my car is only 10 months into a 4 year warranty, they will only fix this safety issue if I pay for a replacement part. This seems unacceptable to me to force customers to pay for a safety fix. The failed component is available for inspection. I have sample video available to demonstrate the problem. There are no warning lights for any components. The manufacturer does not need to inspect the component since they already know, and admit to the shortcomings, per my written conversation with them.
The windshield wipers are controlled by a sensor and the computer. Unfortunately, they come on too slowly. Several times I have been driving in the rain, waiting for the windshield wipers to start clearing the windshield. Each time, the rain on the windshield has gotten so bad that I was unable to see anything out my windshield. If the car in front had braked quickly, or if some pedestrian was trying to cross the street, I would not have known. I tried to tell this to a Tesla service rep, but was told the wipers are controlled by the computer and there is nothing they can do.
Driving on the beltway around Washington DC the weather conditions were variable and the revised user interface in version 11 of the Model 3 software made changing the defroster settings dangerous while in traffic. Previously, it was a single icon on the control screen. Now it requires a push of an icon and a search for the correct controls and adjustments.
Tesla pushed out a new user interface over Christmas. The new interface buries the wiper controls and defrost controls under sub-menus and you can no longer quickly access them while driving. It takes multiple clicks and requires you removing your eyes from the road for a long time. Furthermore, there is no way to revert back to their old interface.
In December, Tesla released a software update that made Model 3 and Model Y cars unsafe to operate. They hid the defroster buttons and many other important controls behind menus that require multiple touchscreen presses to operate. This is unsafe to do while driving and as such we don't drive this car if the weather is at all suspect. The interface for safely operating a car should not rely on taking your eyes off the road to navigate touchscreen menus. Tesla has refused to roll back the software update and has promised a future update in the future to address some of these concerns. It's been over a month now. This needs immediate attention.
While driving from Austin to Nashville, during the last, dark part of our drive, we hit rain. The Auto windshield wiper setting did not work, so I had my passenger help with selecting wiper speeds as the wiper speed control is difficult and distracting to use while driving. We tried the Auto setting a couple more times to see if there was any change, and noticed that the wipers would turn on when we drove under a light, then off again when the there was no light. We tested this a few more times and it appears that the Auto wiper setting only works in well-lit settings (i.e. when it's not raining), and does not work in the dark. It is possible to click a button on the left stalk to trigger a single wipe, but this is ineffective in anything beyond light rain. Due to the inaccessibility of the wiper controls and insufficiency of the single-wipe button, this presents a safety risk while driving the car in the rain.
Windshield has highly visible internal reflections resulting in vertical ghosting in high contrast situations such as headlights brake lights and even on sunny days service center said it was within acceptable tolerance but it greatly diminishes the clarity of vision through the windshield. Haven't seen anything like it in the four other cars manufactured across two decades that I've driven regularly. Dangerous design or manufacturing defect.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026