An ultrasonic parking sensor for a vehicle comprises a substrate 202, which is a vehicle body or arranged for attachment to a vehicle body. The parking sensor comprises an array of ultrasonic elements, which comprise one or more electrically conductive pathways 104 arranged on a surface of the substrate. The array of ultrasonic elements is configured to emit and receive ultrasonic waves to determine the distance of an object from the parking sensor. The conductive pathways contact elements 106 in contact with a piezoelectric film 108, the contact elements thereby forming the elements of the ultrasonic array. The conductive pathways preferably have at least a portion arranged in a digitated (fig 3A) or interdigitated (fig 3B) structure. The operation of the sensors conducted by a control system comprising one or more controllers to generate a signal for the array to emit, receiving a signal from the array and processing the received signal to determine the location of an object relative to the array. The control system may be capable of modifying the signal to individual elements of the array and may include arrangements to modify the signal allowing the ultrasonic waves to be steered or focused.
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