Automatic wipers - not automatic?

In previous cars I have had, automatic rain sensig wipers were set and forget. I noticed in the rain today my wipers didn't start wiping on their own. Pressed the auto button, the green LED came on, and the did a swipe. Fine. But I came back out to the car and when I started it the green LED was off again.



Do the "automatic" wipers have to be manually turned on every time it rains? Seems to defeat the point.