No offense, but your problem is because you don't know how to operate them. I have no problem with them.
You can set the interval of each swipe right on the stalk. Your owner's manual will show you how.

 

Wrong, they work just like Toyota! There is a dial that you twist for each setting 1-4 with "up" being the most sensitive and 4 "down being the least. Like I already posted, I've tried every setting and they sometimes go twice then delay too long....ect.

 

There's no way to turn off the rain-sensing feature and use an intermittent wipe (at least on my 2020.) You'd have to use Low or High speed, which you probably already know. Note that the interval is supposed to fluctuate with vehicle speed, even for the same auto interval setting. I can't say I've noticed that behavior, but I haven't paid close attention, either.

FWIW, I got auto mode to work acceptably and leave the wiper set to that mode. The only issue I have with Auto mode is that it doesn't want to slow down when the rain lessens. Sometimes I'll flick it in and out of Auto to get the wipers to slow down.

 

When set to auto, which is where I leave mine, I must admit I've seen a little weirdness at times. Under some random condition that I can't replicate, I can start the the car in a very light rain and start driving and the wipers don't come on. Usually I switch it to manual to start them and then back to auto and it's fine.

 

Interesting thread

 

Depends entirely on how much water there is on the windshield near the sensors, just behind the rear view mirror. The more water, the faster the wipers go. Likewise, less water, less wipes. It's not a perfect system. On other cars I've had, it always works the same; not perfect!

 

It does the job, but not nearly as well as my MB E350 4Maticc (2008)

 

Thank you. Now we are getting somewhere. I was wondering where the sensor was and figured that a strong possibility. One situation where I could not find a reasonable setting was near a very heavy dense fog type - very small droplet rain and the wipers would go from going on several times in a row, to stopping too long. On faster setting they just went too often and I could find no good balance. I wonder if something like rain ex can affect the "vision" of the sensor and that makes it more unreliable? I just bought the car certified from a Lexus dealer (2017 RX450h), and I think there was rain ex or something put on it? I don't like that on a windshield as sometimes it creates a glare at night that has a kinda fog like effect.

 

I notice with our 2016 Avalon, the auto rain sensors only come on when I pull out of the garage into rain. They do not come on when the car is parked in the rain and I get into the car and start it up, like walking from the store to the car in the rain. I've accepted it.
I've not experimented with our 2021 RX350. Ray A.

 

The 2013 - 2020 GS (RIP) had a additional button on the tip of the wiper control stalk,
press it for rain sense, dont' press for standard intermittent. Wish they would spread that feature around.

 

Just keep the stalk out of the sensing position meaning OFF or one of the intermittent speeds.

 

How reliable are the auto wipers at night?

 

I haven't noticed any difference between nighttime and daytime performance. They work fine, with a couple of quirks. First, as I have found common with other rain-sensing wiper implementations, they don't sense water on the windshield when the vehicle is started. I usually have to flick to a manual setting to clear the windshield, then back to auto. Second, they get 'stuck' at high speed even after the rain amount has slowed. Again, if I flick to manual and back they operate at the appropriate speed. This second quirk may be unique to Lexus, the RX or my particular RX; I don't know.

Neither of these quirks are a big deal to me and I leave the wipers in auto/rain-sense mode all the time.

 

I don't have the problem of them sticking to fast, but in winter I turn them off when parked, because I don't want them trying to come one when they are frozen to the windshield. Other than freezing they are great.