[ralto]

Originally Posted by tilt

Auto-headlamps any day. I see people driving at dusk with no headlights or taillights. tahey have been driving since afternoon, they do not realise that it is dusk and that they are not visible to other traffic. just because they csn see other vehicles they believe they too csn be easily seen.

Rain, they see it, they are affected, they can turn on wipers. Headlights, not so much.

Had to quote this entire message.

This is so basic I feel, yet important. There are so many drivers who ignore turning on headlamps or just forget them. Seeing the poll tilting towards "Auto wipers" I was shocked. But then I realized the results may be so because most of the people will be using these features primarily in the cities and that too in dedicated lanes, where this is not such a big problem. Whereas if you drive often on single-lane roads, the oncoming traffic without lights on is a menace. As there is a chance of other drivers failing to notice the car and leading to a potential accident or at least an uncomfortable close call.

Just my 2 cents.

[Chethan B G]

Ideally both. Actually, these are the safety features which comes only next to seat belts in my opinion.

These are not to be treated as luxury features and manufacturers should just give it as standard, like they provide ABS now a days.

First priority for me is Auto headlamps. Immediate next is Auto wipers. But I would not let the manufacturer relax just by providing one of them. 😅

[ajmat]

Auto Wipers for sure! Rainfall is never consistent and you need to toggle between wiper speeds or switching on/off or use wipe function. Auto Wipers takes this distraction away. After changing my windscreen on my Jetta, the auto wiper function did not work and I found it frustrating.

Auto Lights is also desirable, but the worst case is that one can switch the lights on under any circumstance and forget it till one switches off.

[PrasadS]

Cannot vote yet, but Auto wipers for sure.
Has been a saving grace many a times, especially this one incident where during light rains, my windshield was completely drenched like a waterfall by an adjacent truck which ran through a puddle. 2-3 seconds of complete no vision, that too during a gradual right turn on an incline, but the auto wipers went ballistic and cleared it up without me having to move hands from the steering. Those 2 seconds were the worst I had during all these years driving, muscle memory and sheer instinct kept me between the truck and the divider.
Remember other times too, when opposing lane speedsters puddle sprayed out of nowhere, over and above the divider, and auto wipers came to the rescue.

The only reason I might vote for Auto headlight - If it turns into a complete cure and stops all "always on Upper" bright flashers.

[Levi]

I have an XUV 500 W6 that has both these features.

I barely use the auto headlamps as they get activated quite early in the evening and I get weird looks from people sometimes. Also, you don't really need to switch headlamps frequently. It's either switched on when it's dark or switched off during the day.

Auto wipers on the other hand is very useful during the rainy season and it's one less thing you need to focus on while driving.The amount of rain varies a lot and with this feature you won't need to keep adjusting the wipers all the time and focus on driving instead.

[Lightning2]

Nice thread and preface Aditya !
There is intermittent sand and girt particles kicked by tires of associated traffic, and I wash the windshield by manually spraying the water jet whenever traffic allows. I suspect there is risk of micro scratches of windshield glass on giving authority to automated system and I'd not like using them even if available. I will not risk Micro scratches leading to constant vertical glare of oncoming traffic for small efforts of modulating wiper in "Not so often" driving in rain.
Thus opting for auto headlamp only.

Originally Posted by Aditya

So, if you had to pick one, which feature would you prefer - auto-wipers or auto-headlamps?

[silverado]

Auto headlamps, i prefer them during my Mumbai pune rides where they turn on and off when passing through tunnels.
Auto wipers would be good, but have heard they are very sensitive and hence not preferred. I like to control my wipers myself.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

Originally Posted by corvus corax

I find myself constantly fiddling with the knob adjusting the sensitivity mid driving as sometimes the wiper speed is too low or too fast with respect to the amount of rain water falling on the wind screen, which is at times quite frustrating.

Thats because you are given an option to fiddle with the speed. If you didn't have the speed would you have fiddled the number of times you actually do?

I prefer Auto Headlamps over Auto rain because:

1. Have driven cars with auto rain sensors, I still required a lot of interventions in the low to mid range. The similar which I would do without a rain senson

2. Auto headlamps required across the year.

[IndieGooner]

I drive two cars - Baleno with auto head lamps and Verna with auto wipers. I find auto wipers extremely useful especially as I am from Kerala where rains are a possibility almost any month of the year! I do not use auto headlamps as they seem to turn on bit too early in the evening for my liking.

One super annoying thing with Verma's auto wipers is that, it does a wipe every time you start the car. So if you forget to turn it off before switching off the car, you will be greeted with the sound of wiper dragging over dry glass when you turn on the car next time.

[aadiaksh]

The reason I chose an Ameo over a Vento in 2016 was auto rain sensing wipers.
There should be an aftermarket solution for auto wipers for all brands.

[Old_Salt]

I think depending on your usage, the topography where you generally drive and climate around where you live will decide on how much one uses these features. To be honest, both my cars have both features offered.
So then I put on my thinking cap, I realised that staying in Delhi, I use auto wipers for say 2 months a year and probably auto headlamps even less.
So my vote goes for auto wipers.

[sse]

Funny that this thread crops up today. Just yesterday, I had a scary experience while driving in rain on a 4 lane between Dindugal and Trichy. Its was raining cats & dogs and I had my auto-wipers switched on.

A slow moving lorry was on my left lane and I moved to right to overtake around 40 kmph. Just when I was about to overtake, suddenly, gallons of water, like I drove into a Niagara Falls or something, pounded on my windscreen giving me literally zero visibility for atleast 2 to 3 seconds. Before realising what’s happening, panicking, I break as I have no idea of road ahead of me. Simultaneously, as I had auto-wipers on, It kicks-in and went all bazookas giving me few micro seconds of clear screen and visibility. I think it took a second for auto-wiper to kick up speed, but thankfully it did.

Apparently, there was water stagnation and couple of heavy vehicles in opposite lane drove into it splashing water into opposite lane. I figured it out by looking at IRVM.

So, surely, auto-wipers over auto-headlamps for me. Especially during monsoon.

[aqualeo2040]

Auto Headlamps it is for me.
Somehow I get to absolve myself of the guilt of being the first one to turn the lights on at twilight and be called a chicken - "Hey, its the car!, not me"

Also, while Auto Wipers are good in the monsoons, especially managing the speed etc., it is a pain when you have a splash of rain after a dusty dash. Basically, the auto wipers will ensure that they evenly smear the dirt/muck/grime all over the windshield, so that you can put the Airbag sensors to test!

So, especially in India, the auto wipers are sometimes scary.

I used to love them in UK when the oncoming traffic/truck would dump a bucket of water from the other lane and the wiper would do its job of ensuring I'm not stone blind, driving at 70mph on a motorway!

[malim]

Voted for auto headlamps because I find auto wipers to be:
1. Poor at selecting the right wiper speed. Sometimes they're too fast and sometimes they're too slow.
2. Late to start and late to stop. Many a time I end up checking my wiper setting to see why the wipers haven't started up when there's enough water on the windshield to compromise my vision. I've also often had to manually turn wipers off when they kept making passes on an already dry windshield.

[saats07]

I Chose Auto headlamps.

Having auto wipers is helpful. But you mostly use it for 2-3 months and that too not daily.
Having auto headlamps is very useful. Enter any dark spot and the lights switch on. Enter under ground parking or an underpass, voila! you have lights no need to search for switch. Specially for VW cars.

In Virtus even though it has auto wipers, we have to switch them on and then they work according to intensity. So it dosent make much difference if its in auto or manual. But as lights switch is located in dashboard, its a boon to have auto headlights.