Mitsubishi Motors North America is recalling 67,146 Outlander SUVs because their infotainment software can fail to show the rearview camera image when a driver shifts into reverse. The recall covers the 2025 and 2026 Outlander and the 2026 Outlander PHEV, and the automaker traced the fault to the Alliance In-Vehicle Infotainment system rather than to the camera hardware itself. Mitsubishi reported the defect to federal regulators on August 25, 2026, under NHTSA campaign number 26V549000.
The camera itself typically keeps working; what fails is the dashboard display that is supposed to show its feed the moment the vehicle is put in reverse. Because the problem sits in software rather than wiring, Mitsubishi says dealers will be able to fix every affected Outlander with a free reflash rather than a parts swap.
A software glitch blocks a view federal rules require
In its defect summary, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Alliance In-Vehicle Infotainment system, known as A-IVI, “may fail to display the rearview camera image when the vehicle is placed in reverse” because of improper software programming. NHTSA’s recall record, filed under campaign 26V549000, lists the consequence in blunt terms: the missing image reduces a driver’s view of what is directly behind the vehicle at the exact moment backing up is happening, raising the odds of a low-speed collision with a person or object the driver cannot see on screen.
That camera feed is not an optional convenience feature on a 2025 or 2026 Outlander. Since May 2018, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 111 has required nearly every new passenger vehicle sold in the country to display a rearview image covering a 10-foot-wide, 20-foot-deep zone behind the vehicle whenever it is shifted into reverse. NHTSA’s 2014 rulemaking that created the mandate projected the requirement would prevent between 13 and 15 deaths and more than 1,100 injuries a year once the vehicle fleet caught up to it, almost all of them children and small adults struck in driveways and parking lots. A software bug that blanks that image, even intermittently, undercuts the exact safeguard the rule was written to guarantee.
Real-world data suggests the mandate has worked as intended when the camera actually displays. A 2025 study out of UTHealth Houston’s pediatric surgery department, reviewing more than a decade of trauma-center and county injury records, found that severe backover injuries to children fell by roughly 50% and fatal cases dropped 78% after the 2018 requirement took full effect. “[The] study demonstrates an important association between the federal mandate in 2018 requiring all new vehicles be equipped with a backup camera, and the reduction in both rate and severity of pediatric backover trauma,” said Dr. Natalie A. Drucker, one of the study’s authors. That association is the safety margin a display outage erodes on any Outlander where the screen goes dark at the exact moment a driver shifts into reverse.
Two Outlander model years and one plug-in variant
The recall population spans three distinct listings on Mitsubishi’s own paperwork: the 2025 Outlander, the 2026 Outlander and the 2026 Outlander PHEV, all built on the same infotainment hardware and running the same A-IVI software build. Mitsubishi has not said what share of the 67,146 vehicles are gasoline Outlanders versus the plug-in hybrid, but NHTSA’s vehicle-specific recall listing for the 2026 model year groups all three under the same campaign because they share the defective software.
Sharing a platform is also what makes the fix uniform. Rather than issuing separate remedies for the plug-in and conventional versions, Mitsubishi is deploying one software update across every affected VIN, which is part of why the company expects the repair to take a fraction of the time a hardware recall would require once a vehicle is in a service bay.
Free dealer fix and a mid-September notification window
Dealers will update the A-IVI software at no cost to owners, and carpro.com’s recall roundup reported that Mitsubishi expects to begin mailing owner notification letters on September 24, 2026. Owners who want to check their vehicle before a letter arrives can search their VIN directly against campaign 26V549000, which became searchable on NHTSA’s site on September 9, 2026, or call Mitsubishi customer service at 1-888-648-7820.
NHTSA’s recall database entry for the campaign does not list any crashes, injuries or complaints tied specifically to the missing camera image, and the agency’s report reflects a defect Mitsubishi identified and disclosed rather than one uncovered after a documented incident. Without a crash pattern, the recall’s pace depends on logistics: with no known crash pattern driving urgency, the timeline hinges on how quickly dealers can work through 67,146 software updates once notification letters start reaching owners’ mailboxes.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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