Hey Randy, I don't have the XF or XJ but I do have park assist front and rear in my Audi A6.

It operates as follows.....
when reverse is selected it automatically activates.
As you will generally be manouevering slowly at this point if you then select first gear it will stay on and active the forward sensors.

If however you approach a wall or similar and drive forward straight towards it the sensros will not work unless manually activated.

I would imagine most systnes are the same and thats the way yours should operate, but hopefully someone with that partiucalr vehicle will be along to confirm shortly.

 

unfortunately there is no automatic setting to keep the front sensors on (atleast i havent found one)

i have the same issue. My last XJ had the front sensors on all the time...the new one requires a button press.

it does automatically turn on when you put the car in reverse...and it will stay on when you crawl in drive

 

On my '09 XF, the parking assist automatically activates in reverse and in forward when parking and about to smash into something.

On the Wife's new '12 XJ, parking assist activates in reverse, but only activates in forward when she manually presses the button. Is there a setting somewhere to make it activate automatically, is she doing it wrong, or is this just another "improvement from customer feedback" like the new giant brick-sized keyfobs?

 

did i just have a stroke or is the forum broken ?

 

Hey Randy, I don't have the XF or XJ but I do have park assist front and rear in my Audi A6.

It operates as follows.....
when reverse is selected it automatically activates.
As you will generally be manouevering slowly at this point if you then select first gear it will stay on and active the forward sensors.

If however you approach a wall or similar and drive forward straight towards it the sensros will not work unless manually activated.

I would imagine most systnes are the same and thats the way yours should operate, but hopefully someone with that partiucalr vehicle will be along to confirm shortly.

 

I know that on the LS460 the sensors are always on unless you turn them off pressing a button on the lower left knee level panel. I am not sure why the XJ has it backwards. When I come close to a wall anywhere, or sometimes even when someone walks around the car, the sensors will warn me, I don't have to remember to turn them on. When I pull into a drive through sometimes I have to turn the sensors off because the walls are too close to the car, and the beeping can be annoying. I can turn them back on whenever, or, next time I start up the engine, the sensors turn on and stay on automatically.

 

Personally, I think that having them always "ON" is backwards.

To me they should only be on and active when at slow speeds / manouevering / parking etc.

Under normal circumstances you'd never be that close to anything in front of you. After all rear parking sensors are only there as reversing is slightly more difficult and visibility is reduced, surely?

Are we getting that lazy that we consider it a hardship to press a button once in a while to assist with parking / manouevering?

Maybe its just me?

 

Jim, you're thinking is correct.

always on is kinda silly.....however they should be automatically turned on when you drop to speeds below 15 mph. i think thats reasonable.

 

I don't know if the sensors on the LS460 turn off after a certain speed, all I know is that the green LED that indicates it's "on" is always lit on the button, unless you turn it off. I am so used to being warned when I am getting closer to my garage wall that when I have to turn it on (because I've turned it off earlier for some reason) it's weird. I'm not saying one is wrong and the other is right, they're just different. If the car is in D and the sensors are beeping, when I put in P the beeping stops, but the LED at the sensor button stays on.

Anyways, it's a silly discussion, cars have this feature implemented differently, but they're all great IMHO.