According to the owners manual, the rear parking sensor sensitivity can be adjusted (by the dealer) from "near" to "far". The rear sensor on my 2011 RX350 does not beep until an object is pretty close - approximately 12-18" away. Thinking that this represented the "near" setting, I asked the dealer to change the setting from "near" to "far" (for a fee, of course).

After the dealer made the adjustment, I discovered that the rear sensor does still not give any warning
until the object is 12-18" away - about the same as before. Consequently, I'm wondering 1) if the dealer actually changed the setting, or perhaps misunderstood what I asked for, and 2) what other owners have experienced with regard to the sensitivity of their rear sensors.

Another vehicle of mine has similar rear sensors that will alert at a much longer distance... even as pedestrians walk behind the vehicle in a parking lot. The RX350 sensors do not do this.

Do your rear sensors give warning at distances substantially more than 2-3 feet away?

 

If you have an Android phone you can use the app Carista (the author frequents this site) along with an inexpensive bluetooth adaptor to see the possible settings and their value. For an additional $10.00 you can change the available settings yourself. Total cost possibly less than the dealer charged to change or maybe change the setting you requested. Carista will also let you email all of the possible settings and their values to yourself for review.

 

Thanks for the mention, Tom

Yes, Carista supports a few settings related to the parking sensors, but if I'm not mistaken, the setting that's available on the 3rd gen RX is not near vs. far, but rather narrow vs. wide. So it's more about how far to the sides you want the sensors to work, not how far back.

And of course, you're welcome to try changing these settings with Carista. The cost for unlimited use of Carista is very low (about $20 total) compared to what you pay just for a single visit to the dealer. See the link in my signature for more info.

EDIT: I forgot to say: for the maximum number of available settings, use your latest beta version. See: http://www.caristaapp.com/beta/

 

Setting is adjustable in my 2012 RX - somewhere in the menu is a setting called something like "near" vs "Far"

Intuitive parking assist (→P. 220)
Buzzer volume 3 1 to 5 O — — O
Detection distance
of the rear
center sensor
Far Near O — — O

 

I appreciate the information regarding the Carista product, but before I attempt to change the rear sensor setting again, I'd really like to know the actual difference between the "near" and "far" settings.

How much of a difference would it make? Can anyone comment with their experience?

(BTW, the manual specifically states that the "Detection distance from the center rear sensor" is adjustable from "near" to "far", possibly in several steps).

 

[bump] Still looking for comments on this issue.... Thanks.