Under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 111, a car’s rearview image has to appear within 2.0 seconds of the start of a backing event. In 67,146 Mitsubishi Outlanders, the infotainment software can fail that test, leaving the screen black at the moment a driver shifts into reverse.
Mitsubishi Motors North America filed the recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on August 25, 2026, under campaign number 26V549. The company’s own reference is SR-26-002, and the filing covers the 2025 and 2026 model years of the Outlander along with the 2026 Outlander PHEV.
The A-IVI infotainment software at fault
NHTSA’s campaign record for 26V549 traces the problem to “improper software programming” in the Alliance In-Vehicle Infotainment system, known as A-IVI, which is the central touchscreen unit that also carries the camera feed. The record lists the component as back over prevention software and says the unit can fail to display the rearview camera image when the vehicle is placed in reverse.
The manufacturer’s Part 573 safety report describes a wider set of symptoms than a blank camera view. The system may fail to boot, freeze, restart unexpectedly, show a black screen, or scroll on its own, and the camera loss is the safety consequence that turned a software annoyance into a recall. Mitsubishi identified the root cause as improperly designed software in the A-IVI unit.
Which Outlanders make up the 67,146
The total is two populations added together. According to the report, 65,940 are standard 2025 and 2026 Outlanders and 1,206 are 2026 Outlander plug-in hybrids, so the 67,146 total includes the plug-in hybrid and is not a gasoline-only count. Production ran from December 20, 2024 through July 28, 2026, and AutoGuide’s summary notes that vehicles built after July 28 already left the factory with corrected programming.
Anyone who owns or leases a 2025 or 2026 model can check a specific vehicle by entering its 17-character VIN on NHTSA’s recall lookup. The agency cautions that the search can miss very recent recalls where not every VIN has been identified yet, so a clean result in the first days after a filing is not final.
The 2.0-second rule in FMVSS 111
The standard the recall cites sets two tests that a blank screen fails at once. Under section S5.5 of the regulation, the image must show the full width and height of test objects placed about 20 feet behind the vehicle, and per S5.5.3 it must be displayed within 2.0 seconds of the start of a backing event. A touchscreen that is rebooting or frozen when the transmission goes into reverse delivers neither, and a screen that comes up late is a failure of the second test even if the picture is eventually correct.
NHTSA’s record states the consequence plainly: drivers lose visibility behind the vehicle when backing up, which raises crash risk. The rear-visibility rule exists because a camera is the only practical view of the zone directly behind a tall vehicle, and in an Outlander that view runs through the same screen that handles navigation and audio. Because the feed and the media system share one unit, a software fault in the media side can take the camera down with it. Mitsubishi’s report treats the camera failure as the compliance problem and the other symptoms, such as the unexpected restarts and unintended scrolling, as the visible evidence of the same defective code.
The split matters for scale. The plug-in hybrid accounts for 1,206 of the vehicles, under 2 percent of the total, and its build window was narrower: according to the AutoGuide and autoevolution write-ups of the filing, PHEV production in the recalled group ran from January 22 to July 24, 2026, while the gasoline models ran from December 20, 2024.
The timeline from Canada to U.S. owner letters
The Part 573 report dates the first field reports to October 2025 in Canada. By August 2026, Mitsubishi had logged 39 U.S. warranty claims and one field report describing similar symptoms, and it filed the recall after reviewing them. Forty reports is a small count next to 67,146 vehicles, yet the recall covers every Outlander built in the affected window and not only the ones where a screen has gone dark, because the filing treats the software itself as the defect. Dealers were notified on September 9, 2026, and owner letters were scheduled for September 24, 2026.
The remedy is a dealer reprogramming of the A-IVI software, with no charge to the owner, and the report says reimbursement is available for earlier repairs for ten years. CarPro’s weekly recall roundup lists the campaign alongside other makes that filed over the same period. For the Outlander, the figure that anchors the filing is 39 U.S. warranty claims set against 67,146 vehicles built over a bit more than eighteen months.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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