Having come from the Audi world, where the parking sensors worked great, I find it interesting folks want to mute the audio of Tesla's sensors. Now, I haven't heard this audio since Tesla pulled a fast one and announced sensors 2 days after I confirmed, so I don't have 'em.
But in my experience with my Audi, I found I didn't care about any visuals. I didn't bother looking at the rear camera display. My eyes were busy scanning around the car for people, pets, random shopping carts, concrete walls, cars parked poorly, whatever randomness needed attention -- and at the same time, the audio cues (including ever-increasing rates of short beeps as I got closer to whatever it was I was getting closer to) provided plenty of information to help me park. Especially handy in the Audi is that the audio beeps for front sensors were at a different audio pitch than the rear sensors. And both pitches were adjustable in the Settings menu if you so chose.
Tesla, being a tech company, full of tech people, is going down the path of relying heavily on screen information, when, in my opinion, the last place a driver's eyes should be looking at when nudging into a tight parking space, say, is at a screen. With the Audi I found the audio was plenty. When the beeps got so frequent that they became a solid single long tone, I knew I was within 4-5 inches of the "thing". For example, in parallel parking, once I backed in far enough and got close enough to the car's bumper behind me that I reached a solid tone, I knew to move forward a nudge and the audio would go from continuous tone to super-fast beeps to slower beeps.
I'm curious how things work in the Model S. If Tesla doesn't gouge us with $4500 retrofit fees for adding sensors, maybe I'll get the retrofit.
