Octavia SA Technology, 2016. The car is fitted with Park Pilot, with front and rear sensors and a dynamic image on the infotainment screen with steering path and the location of obstacles. I can see that is a great idea, but it's more than I need. What I really need is just reverse sensors that beep when I am close to an obstacle, which is what my wife's Octavia has. I'd ideally like to disable the front sensors, as they cause an issue when I am driving down the lane from my house to the road. It's narrow, there's a lot of foliage at the sides, the car thinks it's going to crash, and there's a lot of beeping and flashing that I don't need. I've been into the settings (Car/Parking/Park Pilot, 'activate automatically' unchecked) but it still activates from time to time. I know I can always stop it with the button in front of the gear lever, but I would prefer it not to work at all. Is there any way of downgrading the Park Pilot feature to the next level down (like my wife's car), where it is just a reversing sensor? I am aware you can turn down the volume of the beeps, but you can't disable them entirely, and the image still takes over the infotainment display. Many thanks for any info.

I think you can alter the speed the sensors work upto.

Not sure if yours will be the same, but on my SE you can partially disable the front sensors. I have it set so the front sensors do not automatically come on. I can’t remember how it’s done, but in the settings it was fairly obvious, I’ll have a look later.

The front sensors will still come on when you put it in reverse, and it seems that can’t be stopped, but they won’t activate by themselves when you’re going forward.

Maybe with vcds it could be turned off completely, I don’t know.

Turn off front assist

8 hours ago, classic said:

I have it set so the front sensors do not automatically come on. I can’t remember how it’s done, but in the settings it was fairly obvious.

As above, I have 'activate automatically' UNCHECKED in the car settings, but they still come on. I'm guessing that is the 'fairly obvious' setting you mean. I'm a bit puzzled with it all, but I am guessing that as it is a 'safety' feature they will make it as hard as possible to get round. I can live with it, but it's a tad annoying that I can't do anything with it.

 

Will have a go at playing with the speed and turning off Front Assist, see where that gets me. Having said all this, I've had the car two weeks now and I am loving it.

 

Thanks all for the suggestions.

That’s the one, worked on mine, you may have a fault.

Right:

 

Can't alter the speed the front sensors come on, as far as I can see.

Activate automatically is unchecked - still come on.

Front assist disabled - still come on.

 

No worries, I've had a try and failed, and I can live with it. It's not a big deal, just a mild annoyance, and I am starting to get used to it anyway.

 

Many thanks for all the ideas, very helpful. Cheers all.

Just a thought, could you deactivate it in the park pilot screen itself? At the top, there’s an automatic assist switch which I clicked and now does not activate autonomously. 

4 hours ago, Ward03FL said:

Just a thought, could you deactivate it in the park pilot screen itself? At the top, there’s an automatic assist switch which I clicked and now does not activate autonomously. 

 

Aha! Hadn't seen that. Will try, cheers.

I was unable to disable the front parking sensors using the software despite many attempts. However, I think I have found a solution, so posting it here in case anyone feels the same. I simply put some black insulating tape over the four front sensors as an experiment. I was expecting it to put up error messages everywhere, and for the first few forward/back manoeuvres it threw up a few odd noises and lines on the display, but for the last two days it has been perfect. The rear sensors still work as they should, and I don't get a peep out of the front sensors when driving down my overgrown driveway ("driveway" = rough track). This is exactly what I wanted.

 

With neat cutting, black tape on a black bumper is amlost invisible, so I don't feel I have spoilt the appearance. If it continues to work normally for the next few days I will regard this as 'solved'. Thanksd to everyone for the inputs.

17 minutes ago, RichardB53 said:

I was unable to disable the front parking sensors using the software despite many attempts. However, I think I have found a solution, so posting it here in case anyone feels the same. I simply put some black insulating tape over the four front sensors as an experiment. I was expecting it to put up error messages everywhere, and for the first few forward/back manoeuvres it threw up a few odd noises and lines on the display, but for the last two days it has been perfect. The rear sensors still work as they should, and I don't get a peep out of the front sensors when driving down my overgrown driveway ("driveway" = rough track). This is exactly what I wanted.

 

With neat cutting, black tape on a black bumper is amlost invisible, so I don't feel I have spoilt the appearance. If it continues to work normally for the next few days I will regard this as 'solved'. Thanksd to everyone for the inputs.

Low tech to defeat high tech