Parking sensor button
Switches the parking sensors' distance warnings on or off by hand.
What pressing it does
The sensors switch on by themselves when you select reverse; the button turns them on (for example to check the front while creeping forward) or off again. Hyundai's Tucson: forward warnings work below 10 km/h and stop above 30 km/h; the beeps come faster as you close in (intermittent at 60-120 cm, more frequent at 30-60 cm). SEAT's Ateca: one press connects or disconnects the parking aid; with automatic connection on, it also comes on when driving forward below 15 km/h and an obstacle is closer than about 95 cm.
Check your car's manual: makes and models differ in what a button does, which positions a switch has and whether it works with the engine off, and your owner's manual is the authority for your car.
- What it looks like
- A letter P with curved sound-wave arcs beside it
- Also labelled
- Parking aid; Parking Distance Warning; Parking Safety button; Park assist
- Standard
- None — a maker's symbol, described here from 2 makers' manuals: Hyundai, SEAT
What to check in your car's manual
Whether your sensors come on automatically going forward, and how to mute them without switching them off.
Where makes differ
The speeds and distances are the maker's: Hyundai 10 km/h and 30 km/h; SEAT 15 km/h and about 95 cm. Hyundai calls the button Parking Safety; SEAT calls it the parking aid button. Neither is the P with straight rays on the dashboard, which is the parking lights indicator.
No regulation defines it
Neither the UN R121 table nor FMVSS 101 Tables 1 and 2 lists a parking-sensor control, so its symbol is the maker's.
Related dashboard pages
Other buttons under “Letters”
Sources
No regulation defines this control, so it is described from 2 carmakers' own owner's manuals, each read on the date shown.
- Hyundai 2025 Tucson (general market, English web manual): Forward/Reverse Parking Distance Warning operation — Parking Safety button on/off; automatic in reverse; 10 and 30 km/h limits; warning distances. checked 2026-09-25
- SEAT Ateca owner's manual, UK English, edition 06.21 (model year 2022), PDF: Rear parking aid / parking aid — Manually connecting and disconnecting, p. 275 — Press the parking aid button to connect or disconnect; automatic in reverse or below 15 km/h with an obstacle within about 95 cm. checked 2026-09-25
Written in our own words; the manuals cover their own models only.