I recently moved from Toronto, Ontario across the country to Victoria, British Columbia. My 2015 XC60 was moved by train. Before moving, the road sign information always worked perfectly in Ontario... the speed signs were always recognized, flawlessly. Upon arrival in BC, it stopped working. About 90% of the time, nothing is displayed. The other 10%, it is wrong (90 km/h displays as 30, or 110 km/h displays as 10, for example).

The formatting of the speed signs in BC is very slightly different than in Ontario. I think they may be using a different font. But they are still recognizably speed signs... not like the very different signs you see in Europe, for example. I thought this might be relevant because when I acquired the vehicle via Overseas Delivery in 2014, the speed signs in Sweden were not recognized and nothing was displayed. I was told that this was because the car had been programmed for it's final destination: Ontario, Canada.

My understanding is that the car uses the camera to detect speed signs, and it is programmed to recognize the signs for the region it is sold in. I don't know how granular the "region" setting is? A whole country, a province/state?

I took the car to Volvo of Victoria. The service manager said they have never encountered this problem before. They ruled out any physical issue with the camera and did a software update. The technician also stated that the SiriusXM traffic info was not working because there is no subscription. This was not a surprise to me - I only ever had the free six-month subscription when the car was new, and since I have never used the factory-installed navigation, I have never relied on the traffic info. Besides, as I said, speed signs in Ontario have been recognized flawlessly this whole time. I assume this is because the car uses only the camera to recognize signs, and the SiriusXM issue is irrelevant.

After the software update, they drove the car around the block and told me they weren't sure it was it was working yet. I assume that's because they are in the middle of the city and there are no speed signs on the city streets immediately around the dealership. I picked up the car and went directly to the highway. I passed several speed signs and nothing has changed. Mostly, nothing was displayed and occasionally the wrong speed limit was shown, just like before I took it in.

This may seem like a small issue, but I really want it resolved. Now that I live in a new area and I'm not familiar with the roads and speed limits, I find the speed limit display useful. Also, if I sell the car in the future, it has one less feature.

I will take the car back to the dealership for more investigation. Meanwhile, does anyone here have ideas?

 

That sounds like an unusual issue indeed... I just got a 2015.5 T-5 e-Platinum today and until this car I have never had that detail show up in a car dash before, usually only in Nav apps. And after my first 100 miles with my "new to me" car I pulled out the owners manual to educate myself on how to turn off that feature off if I want to... Traffic flows way faster than posted limits where I live and I don't need to be constantly reminded about the law I am fracturing. Also, I'll be able to claim blissful ignorance to the speed limit and not be overtly lying to the officer when he/she ask if I knew how fast I was going...

And FWIW, I did not know the feature existed until well after I bought the car. I think your XC60 will surely sell itself on its many other much more profound merits when the time comes. But if push comes to shove and you really believe it could hurt the resale of your car if it goes unresolved, then you could always go on one last big road trip with it and trade it in or sell it n Toronto.

Jokes aside, it really should work as it's designed for you to use if you want. Best of luck with the dealer. I'm curious what the final verdict ends up being. ?????

 

There are a few years difference between your car and mine, however the feature you're talking about is also on mine. Maybe you've already done this so my apologies if you have. There are so many map regions here in the U S, I'm sure the same exists in Canada. Try going into your settings and see if there is a map upgrade for your car and the region you're now in. If so, it could be a simple download fix in your driveway while listening to the radio.