How do I prevent my car from emergency braking with a bike rack attached?

With parking assistance enabled and a bike rack attached, some modern cars will refuse to travel in reverse and will automatically engage the emergency brake.

By Jeff Barber
January 11, 2025

9 comments

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After our 15-year-old Subaru finally bit the dust in 2021, we needed a new car. There were a lot of things to like about the new Volkswagen we chose, but some things — like emergency braking when the car senses an impending collision — were just plain annoying and confusing. Especially when trying to back out of a parking space with a bike rack attached to the car.

I posed this question on the Singletracks forums, back when forums were a thing, asking how to prevent my car from auto-braking with a hitch rack attached. Of course, the answer is simple — just cancel the safety feature by tapping the “X” on the backup camera screen — and reverse as usual. On my vehicle, disabling parking assistance disables the backup camera, too, so I need to turn my head the old-fashioned way to back out safely.

If you don’t cancel backup assistance while in reverse, the vehicle — at least in my case — will go just a few feet before coming to a stop and shifting itself into park. You can put it in reverse again, and go a few more feet, but that gets annoying. Because the car stops abruptly, even at slow speeds, it feels like you’re hitting something, which definitely gets the heart pumping.

While drafting this article, I did some additional testing and found that if I tried backing up in a straight line, emergency braking wasn’t engaged; the vehicle only beeps and shows a warning on the screen. However, if I turn the wheel even just a little bit while in reverse, the car almost immediately brakes and shifts into park.

Bottom line: For those who are wondering how to back up with a bike rack attached to your super safe, super smart car, just hit the “X” and re-take full control.

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9 Comments

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Zoso 2016
Jan 11, 2025

Funny how things that are considered a luxury/improvement with cars are generally annoying. My list: power trunks, power seats (too slow), leather (too hot/cold), and what the article states.
Just me yelling at clouds here. Ha.

2 reply

roxtar New Mexico // 2020
3 weeks ago

I hate, hate, hate with the white hot hatred of a thousand suns, new car features that fix non-existant problems. My wife's VW Tuoareg's cruise control stopped working because the camera for the lane assist died. The cruise control is tied into the lane sensing camera and won't work without it.
I don't need the car to tell me when I'm changing lanes, God gave me eyes for that. I DO want cruise control, though. You know, cruise control, a technology that has worked perfectly for roughly fifty years now, completely independent of lane changing.
I have to spend over $2K to get the lane assist working (that I don't need or want) just to get the cruise working.

1 reply

wareagle4130 2010
Jan 11, 2025

My Subaru has a similar feature they call “reverse automatic braking”. First time I started reversing with the bike rack on it slammed the brakes on and scared me to death. Luckily it’s easy to turn off in vehicle settings and still retain function of the rear camera and cross traffic alert. The constant beeping from the parking sensors with a rack on, and subsequent lack of function from the sensors is annoying though.

bikepete Oregon // 2019
3 weeks ago

Just like on my Crosstrek Wilderness. It is even more annoying since I have a full-size external spare.

0 reply

UberV Connecticut // 2023
3 weeks ago

Another option if you have a hitch and at least on the ID4 , you can plug in a light adapter like this and then the camera will still work, but it turns off the auto breaking. Hopkins Towing Solutions 7 Blade to 4 Flat Adapter with LED, 47345. The adapter without the LED's, won't help.

AUTHOR

Jeff Barber Georgia // 1998
3 weeks ago

Good tip! I don't have wiring for tow lights set up on my vehicle, but for those who do this seems like a great solution.

Bham MTB Alabama // 2019
1 week ago

I guess I’m spoiled with my old (2021) F150. Just a simple button press on the screen when I back up disables the auto brake and the audible alarm but nothing else. It does reset when I turn off the truck but then that’s what I prefer so that it’s active unless I want to go in a disable it permanently, which is an option. Sometimes my lane keeping camera gets blocked/ dirty and it turns off my cruise, but there’s also an option to use cruise without that feature. It sounds like some of these other auto makers just put the features in without any thought about how to use them in the real world.

Hap Proctor Florida // 2014
Jan 12, 2025

My wife bought a new car a couple years ago with that annoying feature. You can it turn off, but you must do so each time you restart the engine. My solution: stick to my older model pickup.

Now, I'm hearing the sound of a CVT exploding.

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