I get your point. In many cases one can benefit indirectly by leading the car. The lessor benefits from the credit and can give some of that relief in turn to the lessee.
So, is there any difference between the 2018/19 and 2020 clarity's other than the supposed rain sensing wipers which may or may not be a copywriter error ? BTW, Lexus has had rain sensing wipers back from 2007 at least
So far the only difference appears to be the pedestrian warning noise (Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System) shutting off whenever the engine is running. Honda, too, has rain-sensing wiper technology, but it doesn't include it in all their cars.
I posted that because you wrote this: "The feature that you’ve described simply turns on the head lights, in some instances, when the wipers are activated, which must be done manually on current models." I understood you to be saying that current models did not automatically turn on the lights when the wipers were activated - that the driver needed to do it manually.
The wipers must be activated manually. Under certain conditions (headlights set to Auto, wipers activated a certain number of times within a certain period of time) activating the wipers manually will automatically turn on the headlights. The headlights will also automatically turn off after the wipers have been inactive for a certain period of time. Headlight Integration with Wipers can also be disabled.
According to the 2020 Owner's Manual - the Acoustic Vehicle Alerting system now operates up to 22 mph, where previously I think it only operated to 12 mph?
From the 2020 Manual: Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System Alerts pedestrians when the vehicle transmission is in a position other than (P and is traveling at speeds of 22 mph (36 km/h) or less.
Interesting -- much higher speed, and there's no mention of a Canadian model button to disable anymore. And with the added wording about the transmission other than P, does it now play even when the car isn't moving but is in "D"? We definitely need someone who gets a 2020 to report back on the sound and behavior; hopefully side by side with a 2019!