Mitsubishi Motors Pulls Their Weight in the Renault-Nissan Alliance

When discussing the plans for connectivity and mobility within the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, some of the goals sound familiar. Many vehicles in the industry today use cloud computing and over-the-air updates, and connecting vehicles to outside sources such as a smartphone or a virtual assistant, is quickly becoming a normal occurrence. When Mitsubishi Motors first joined the Alliance, it seemed like the majority of the weight the automaker would be pulling was that of plug-in hybrid technology while leaving Renault and Nissan to the rest. However, this goal of creating a cloud for consumer vehicles started years ago before Mitsubishi joined the Alliance. It was their own creation, the Mitsubishi Connect. So how much of the work is Mitsubishi really doing?

Recap of Mitsubishi Connect

We’ve discussed Mitsubishi Connect more than once before. After all, it was a pretty cool concept. Originally, the Connect system was supposed to be installed into the next version of the EVO nameplate, the Mitsubishi eX concept. The concept seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth and has been replaced by the possibility of a Mitsubishi Lancer Electric SUV. Quite the change from the original vehicles wearing the EVO nameplate, but it looks dangerously close to the early eX concept.

Mitsubishi eX was supposed to come with its own version of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and would be linked to a cloud owned by Mitsubishi Motors. From there, Mitsubishi Connect could match information about a driver’s internet activities with the places they visit to proactively make suggestions and share promo information. It’s the same thing Google, Amazon, and Facebook do every day, nothing new. If you watch the trailer for an upcoming movie multiple times in a week, Mitsubishi Connect will prompt you to buy tickets for that movie when it becomes available – stuff like that.

The cloud being built by the Alliance Connected Vehicles (ACV) team is still in its early stages and is said to do everything every other vehicle app can do – offer remote software upgrades and vehicle diagnostics. Sounds like it’s years behind, and we can see Mitsubishi Motors also being brought in to work on it. Know what else Mitsubishi Motors has a large hand in? Mobility Services.

The fourth part of the Alliance and Alliance Ventures plan is to create a mobility ecosystem where everyone has access to some form of transportation to get from point A to point B. With the automaker quickly evolving with electrification, connectivity, and autonomous driving, being able to provide anyone with a robotaxi anywhere, and Easy Ride, a robo-vehicle ride hailing service, in Japan, is already on the way. Mitsubishi really kicked things up a notch when Mitsubishi Motors Corp. signed a contract with Maas Global Oy to help with the expansion of their Whim smartphone app, an app that allows the people of Finland (the only location of service at the moment) to get nearly unlimited access to cars; taxis; buses, Metro, ferry, and commuter trains in the HSL area; and bike rentals with a monthly subscription.

To us, it looks like Mitsubishi Motors is the one pulling all the weight. Why did the automaker join the Alliance again? Join the discussion on University Mitsubishi social media.

Photo Source/Copyright: Mitsubishi Connect