Intermittent wipers are useless

I have had intermittent wipers on practically ever car I've owned, and can't see why the time and trouble was wasted on developing them in the first place.

When driving in light rain, I find myself constantly fiddling around with the control trying to find a speed that consistently clears the screen without the wipers "screeching". Most wipers today, have a way of tapping the control, when needed, to activate the wipers just once to clear the window. I use this in a light rain and if it's heavy just turn them on continuously.

Some automakers, such as Mercedes, have something that automatically controls the speed of the wipers, based on the speed the car is traveling. Sounds questionable, but maybe it works better than trying to manually set the speed.

There is also a product called Rain-X, that when applied repels rain, so in certain conditions no wipers are needed at all.