Since its release in 2016, American Truck Simulator (ATS) has been synonymous with hauling cargo across an ever‑expanding US map. Players take delivery contracts, build freight businesses and enjoy the meditative rhythm of driving large rigs. Over the years SCS Software’s updates have refined physics, graphics and map detail while expanding into new states and industries. Yet a new direction is on the horizon: Road Trip, an upcoming gameplay module that lets drivers leave their tractor‑trailers behind and experience the open road in driveable passenger vehicles. The module will launch through a series of manufacturer‑themed car packs, beginning with the Ford Car Pack and followed by RAM & Dodge and other packs. Unlike a simple cosmetic DLC, Road Trip is a foundational change that introduces new vehicles, career opportunities and exploration mechanics. This article explores what the Road Trip module entails, looks at the first cars announced, surveys the vibrant modding scene and examines where the truck simulator franchise is heading.

The Ford Car Pack: iconic vehicles and a shift in gameplay

2023 Ford F‑150 Lariat

The Ford Car Pack will debut four vehicles. The headliner is the 2023 Ford F‑150 Lariat, an archetypal American pickup truck. The F‑150 has been America’s best‑selling vehicle since 1981, evolving from a V8‑powered workhorse to a modern pickup with refined powertrains and performance variants. SCS notes that the virtual version aims to capture the truck’s recognizable exterior, carefully crafted interior and factory‑inspired colour options like Agate Black Metallic, Iconic Silver Metallic and Atlas Blue Metallic. Because development is ongoing, the studio is still evaluating which engine configurations will best represent the truck in‑game. This transparency gives players an idea of the attention to detail SCS devotes to vehicle accuracy.

2006+ Ford Crown Victoria

Another star of the Ford pack is the Ford Crown Victoria. This full-size sedan, built on Ford’s rear-wheel-drive Panther platform, became a symbol of durability and no-nonsense practicality. For decades it defined what a police car looked like in North America, while also being equally recognizable as the classic city taxi. Its unmistakable silhouette made it a familiar sight not only on the streets, but also across countless movies and TV shows.

In ATS, SCS is bringing the Crown Victoria to Road Trip with authenticity as the priority. As part of their preparation, they reached out to the community to find owners of featured vehicles, so they could capture real reference material and record real-world sounds. A community member named Marcel from Germany offered his help and invited the team to inspect his car in person—an ex-supervisor Ford Crown Victoria P71 Police Interceptor that still carries many of the signature details that made the model so memorable.

Thanks to Marcel’s cooperation, SCS was also able to record audio and capture the unique sound character of the Crown Victoria, which will play an important role as development continues. It’s a great example of how community involvement can directly improve the quality of official content—and why Road Trip feels like more than “just another DLC.”

In the Ford Car Pack, the Crown Victoria will give players a true classic to cruise in. SCS has already hinted they’re excited to see modders turn it into everything from taxis to police cruisers—exactly the kinds of roles this car became famous for.

Other Ford vehicles

The pack also includes the 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback and the 2023 Ford Bronco. According to the Steam product description, the Mustang represents an era‑defining muscle car while the Bronco adds a modern off‑road SUV. The official store page stresses that the pack is an add‑on for the Road Trip module and will unlock personal cars for players to deliver small packages, explore freely and collect postcards by visiting iconic locations. Players can therefore treat these cars as both work tools and leisure vehicles, receiving fresh gameplay loops outside of trucking.

How Road Trip unlocks

SCS clarifies that owning any Road Trip vehicle pack will unlock the module. In the RAM & Dodge Car Pack announcement they state that “with the eventual release of the RAM & Dodge Car Pack, and with any Road Trip vehicle pack, the Road Trip gameplay module will become available to players”. This means players who purchase the Ford pack will gain access to Road Trip and its features, and additional packs will add more cars rather than gating the module itself.

Mods: community creativity and realism enhancements

Car mods broaden the vehicle roster

Long before SCS officially introduced the Road Trip module, the modding community was already expanding American Truck Simulator with driveable car mods. Over the years, this site has built a dedicated Cars category featuring thousands of car mods, ranging from luxury sedans and sports cars to powerful American pickup trucks inspired by real-world models. This extensive selection allows players to experience ATS beyond traditional long-haul trucking and explore the game world from a completely different perspective.

Many car mods include detailed interiors, tuned engines, and custom handling physics, sometimes even supporting manual transmissions with assisted or hybrid shifting behavior. While mod quality naturally varies, the sheer scale and popularity of car mods clearly demonstrate a strong community demand for non-truck vehicles. In many ways, this long-standing modding ecosystem helped prove that personal cars could fit naturally into the ATS experience and likely influenced the direction that the Road Trip module is now taking.

US Car Culture mod: realistic traffic and regional diversity

Many mods focus not on driveable cars but on traffic realism. One of the most comprehensive is US Car Culture, a free mod on SCS’s forum that adjusts AI vehicle spawn rates to reflect real‑world market share. The developer explains that ATS’s default AI spawns different car models at a balanced rate across all regions, whereas in reality some brands dominate specific states (e.g., Ford in Wyoming or Honda/Toyota in California). The mod reworks AI spawn rates and locations to mirror these patterns, reduces the prevalence of classic or antique vehicles and ensures rare variants like the Ford F‑150 Raptor spawn less often. It also includes compatibility patches and load‑order recommendations to work with other traffic or map mods

Beyond spawn rates, US Car Culture offers optional improvements. The Vehicle specs improvement component adjusts engine power, weight ratios and other specifications using real‑world data sources, fixing wrong values from the base game and adding missing tags. The Color expansion adds paint colours based on actual factory offerings, with older vehicles featuring more colourful palettes. The License plate expansion brings more realistic plate designs for every US state, including standard, specialty, veteran and other variants, replicating accurate series formats and font colours. These features collectively deliver a more authentic American road environment.

How SCS updates shape the future of the series

Route 66 rework in update 1.58

The 1.58 update, released in February 2026, illustrates SCS’s commitment to refreshing older content. The update introduces the Route 66 Rework Project, focusing on northern Arizona and parts of New Mexico. The team reworked sections of Interstate 40 and Historic Route 66, along with surrounding cities, depots and landmarks. Cities such as Kingman, Flagstaff, Grand Canyon Village, Page, Kayenta, Camp Verde and Show Low were rebuilt from the ground up, and a new city—Lake Havasu City—was added. Landmarks like the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City (moved from London and rebuilt brick by brick in 1971) are now represented in game. The rework gives these iconic locations modern visual fidelity and brings them in line with current mapping standards, showing that SCS doesn’t simply expand the map but also revisits ageing content.

Driving Academy expansion

Version 1.58 also adds a Double Trailer Handling module to the Driving Academy. This new training module guides players through forward‑driving, manoeuvring and reversing with two trailers. It is split into three chapters and rewards players who complete all scenarios with an in‑game “wiener dog” toy for their truck cabin. By gamifying advanced techniques, SCS encourages players to improve their skills and provides a tangible reward for doing so.

New truck garages and visual refinements

Another highlight of the 1.58 update is a full visual rework of all three in‑game truck garages. The designers refreshed interiors, improved lighting and added atmospheric details so that garages feel more modern and welcoming. Rather than simply updating old models, SCS approached the redesign ambitiously to create spaces players enjoy returning to. Improvements like these enhance immersion and show that the studio pays attention to quality-of-life areas beyond the open road.

Continual state expansions and industry diversity

Outside of car‑related content, SCS continues to expand the ATS map with new DLCs. Recent releases include Iowa, Louisiana and Nordic Horizons, each adding unique industries, landmarks and road networks. The studio also uses annual updates to introduce new cargo types, trailer packs and driving academy lessons. This steady cadence of releases ensures that the simulator remains fresh and provides a foundation for future modules.

What the future may hold

The Road Trip module hints at a broader vision for the truck‑simulation franchise. Rather than remaining a pure trucking game, ATS might evolve into a comprehensive “life on the road” simulator where players can choose different vehicle types and career paths. The RAM & Dodge Car Pack features vehicles like the RAM 1500 pickup, Dodge Charger, Dodge Viper and Dodge Challenger, promising high‑horsepower rides that broaden gameplay. SCS’s mention that any Road Trip pack unlocks the module suggests more manufacturers will follow. Because the Ford pack already contains a pickup, a sedan, an SUV and a muscle car, future packs might introduce electric vehicles (e.g., Ford’s F‑150 Lightning), performance variants or even vintage classics.

Looking beyond cars, SCS has dabbled in bus gameplay for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and may experiment with passenger transport in ATS. The Driving Academy could expand into advanced trucking scenarios like oversized loads or off‑road challenges. Meanwhile, the modding community will likely continue to push boundaries by importing detailed car models, reworking traffic behaviour and adding new states long before official releases. The interplay between official expansions and community creativity will shape ATS’s future.

We are happy to share with you that the 1.44 update has now been released for American Truck Simulator. This update is packed with new features and changes, so we recommend reading through them all.

California Rework: Phase 2

We are excited to bring Phase 2 of the California Rework as part of this free update for all owners of American Truck Simulator. The focus of this projects sees the cities Eureka, Ukiah, Sacramento, Redding, and Truckee which have been rebuilt from the ground up, along with local landmarks, architecture and surrounding road networks.

We will also be saying goodbye to the city of San Rafael. Due to the map scale, we had to make the hard decision to remove the city from the in-game economy. To make up for this, we will be introducing a brand new city, which will be larger and of much greater importance in California’s road network in Phase 3 of our ongoing project! Any guesses which one it might be?

New rest areas and truck stops have also been implemented, but that isn’t all! You will also find new assets, vegetation, and textures too, giving the area a completely new look and feel. We can’t wait for you to explore it for yourselves. You can read more all about the rework on previous blogposts which have highlighted the cities and more which have been reworked

Mod Refund Feature

Since the introduction of third party modification support in our convoy mode, our team has been working to improve the mod support experience. In this update, we are happy to share a new feature which we hope will further improve players gameplay when playing with modifications.

We like to call this new addition the ‘Mod Refund’ feature. In simple terms, after a player has downloaded a third party modification and used it on their truck, they may in the future want to remove it (or it even may have become incompatible). This new feature reads and recognises the data from the modification, even if it has been removed, and refunds the player the difference with the in-game currency. This removes the problem of players losing money after using a modification.

It works by recognising that a crucial part is missing (such as the chassis, engine etc) and replacing it with a default part. Players will be prompted with a pop-up containing information that some parts are being refunded and will be given the option to accept or reject this refund. If you decide to reject the refund and reactivate the mod instead, the truck will now revert to its former glory even if you have saved the game in the meantime.

So, whether you’re trucking with friends in a convoy session with mods, or you want to remove a certain modification after use, this new feature will make sure you won’t go out of pocket!

Read more for FULL feature list

Licensed vs Aftermarket Customization Options in UI

Players customising their truck or looking at new parts in the garage may see some new icons appearing in the list. In total we have added 4 new icons to represent what type of accessory it is. When you hover over them, they will show if they are classed as a:

• Factory part – A stock part sold by the manufacturer (including interiors)
• Licensed part – Anything that is officially licensed that is not produced by truck factory
• Aftermarket part – Any additional accessory that is not related to the brand.
• Unknown part – A part that is not recognised or in some cases, a third party modification.

This should help drivers when it comes to customisation if they wish to keep it within the manufacturers customisation options, or tune their truck further with aftermarket parts. We hope you enjoy this small yet helpful feature!

Unmarked Roads Exploration

With the 1.44 update, we are bringing into ATS and ETS2 a new feature; once you drive onto an unmarked road, you will be notified about having done so with a message in the route advisor, and the explored road will appear on the map as an orange dashed line, with any unexplored part ahead of you shown in grey.

On one hand, this will ensure that you will immediately be aware of the fact that you have found something interesting, and on the other hand, if you ever decide to re-visit a hidden zone you will know where to go.

Map explorers, do not panic! These unmarked roads do not contribute to your map discovery percentage, but they do add a nice addition to your GPS if you do come across them.

Force Feedback Upgrade

This update also includes a few new upgrades to the force feedback experience when playing ATS or ETS2. These changes have been made to represent a more realistic driving experience, which includes:

• New gearbox grind effect simulating vibration of missed gear when using manual shifting.
• New understeer slip effect simulating tyre slip when vehicle is understeering
• Revisited power steering curves and pressure gain of self centering effect to improve steering feel.
• Revisited internal friction force giving better feedback depending on the speed of steering.

Since self centering and internal friction were updated, we highly recommend that you reset the FFB settings to their defaults again.

Smart Sequential Shifting

Smart Sequential Shifting is now available to truckers, if they wish to enable it via the options. So what does it do? In simple terms, when you shift up or down sequentially, it will automatically shift by more gears at once based on the current torque or speed.

For this to work, drivers will still need to trigger the shifting process, but once working, should require less input from the driver.

Interior Camera Horizontal Lock

This new option allows truckers driving in the first person view (in the cabin) to lock the camera view to the horizon, so that it moves more independently from the position of the cabin.

With the introduction of this new feature, players can find a slider in the options that defines the locking factor; with the slider being to the left disabling the locking and to the right, being the strongest locking option.

Adjustable Suspension Height

Sometimes, when you are driving a big rig, trailer pick ups can be a bit tricky. Adjustable suspension height should help drivers eliminate the problem of hooking upto sometimes problematic trailers or in difficult pick up/delivery area.

Drivers now can lower the suspension of their truck to get the correct height for hooking up their trailer, without damaging it. Players will be able to find the inputs for this new adjustable suspension in the options. Its inputs are front up/down and rear up/down.

We have also included a new UI prompt which appears when the drivers are having trouble hooking up their trailers after a few attempts. We hope this makes picking up deliveries of any size easier in the future!

Ownable Drop Deck Trailers

In this update, we are happy to introduce a brand new ownable trailer type as well – the drop deck trailer! What makes this trailer special is the fact that it has a lower center of gravity, and it combines the advantages of flatbed and lowboy, which results in a flat surface and a high weight-bearing capacity.

It is perfect for hauling items and materials such as aircraft engines, backhoe loaders, forklifts and so much more. Also, because drop decks are low, we had to design new small tires, rims, nuts, and hubs, specifically for this trailer type.

In addition to having 3 customizable body types (wood floor, aluminum floor, sliding tarp) and 2 different chassis lengths (48ft or 53ft) with a choice of two, three, or four axles, here is a detailed list of everything you will be able to customize:

• Front walls
• Wind deflector
• Warning flags
• Aluminum boxes
• Chrome boxes
• Side markers
• Rear banners (long load, oversize load, wide load)
• Rear bumpers
• Mudflaps

We hope you enjoy trucking with this sturdy, reliable, and practical trailer type in the 1.44 update.

Cascadia MY2022 Interior Options 

Among other changes arriving in American Truck Simulator in the 1.44 update, there will also be a rather small addition, that is technically actually bigger than it might seem. We are excited to let you know that we are bringing new interior options for Freightliner Cascadia trucks!

In total, there will be 3 new interior trims added for the Freightliner Cascadia in order to line-up with what they are now offering in real-life. The all-new trim designs will be available in all 4 cabin types. But we have also taken a step further with the 72″ cabin versions because these trims will include a table with seats in the back as well!

We hope you enjoy trucking with these new interior options for the Cascadia.

New Special Transport Routes

From oversized cargo to challenging routes, the Special Transport DLC offers players a unique trucking experience; and today we are happy to share that 8 new routes will be arriving to the roads American Truck Simulator in this update.

Much like our previous addition of new Special Transport routes to Euro Truck Simulator 2, our team wanted to bring new additional content for our drivers in ATS too! You can find these new contracts between:

SCS introducing Colorado for American Truck Simulator. This DLC is currently in progress. So, now you can see a few screenshots from this awesome map DLC for ATS.

Home to some of the country’s tallest mountains, a wide variety of biomes and an array of unique industries; this map expansion will bring beautiful landscapes and new road networks for drivers to explore and deliver to.

But where did the name Colorado originate from? The origin of the word actually comes from the Spanish language, which means ‘colored red’. This name was chosen for the territory by U.S congress in 1861, which may be the reason why the state received the nickname of ‘Colorful Colorado’. However, many believe it received this nickname because of the magnificent scenery of mountains, rivers and plains you can find across the State.

Colorado is a project that SCS is currently developing at full capacity in parallel with Idaho DLC; of course, our Euro Truck Simulator 2 fans know that there are yet more projects in production! At the moment, our aim is to complete and release Colorado a few months after Idaho, tentatively towards the end of this year. Please note, however, that due to extraordinary circumstances we face during this time, this timeframe may change.

American Truck Simulator demo has been released. You can download demo version from Steam.

Go to the Steam and click in right side Download Demo button.

Go to Steam

SCS Software decided that it’s high time we packed our bags, took our truck driver license together with our favorite windshield toy, and head to the other side of the ocean. After few years of driving on the Old Continent and creating an empire of transportation, the Czech studio is taking us to hot California and equally vast Nevada. The change is quite apparent, and you can actually see it, hear it and feel it. Being a truck driver in the United States is a completely different – and much better – experience.

We learned about the existence of American Truck Simulator a long time ago. Although Euro Truck Simulator series was undoubtedly an amazing phenomenon that attracted thousands of sim lovers and fans of big trucks, many gamers wanted something new that would make them twice as excited to take the steering wheel of the 18-wheeler and roam the highways with more and more expensive cargo. A virtual trip to America is supposed to be that motivating factor and I believe that’s the best decision the developers could have made.

More information in GamePressure review: http://www.gamepressure.com/e.asp?ID=501

It’s time to respond to the avalanche of questions coming our way concerning our plans for the initial edition of American Truck Simulator and its post-release future.

The day one release will contain the state of California. That was always the plan.

We are happy to confirm that on February 3rd, we will also have the state of Nevada fully ready for release. We were still not sure about Nevada’s finish-line when the game box packaging design was being finalized, so the boxes sitting on retail shelves will put the spotlight on California, but there is actually more coming your way right out of the gate. In short, DLC Nevada will be a free game update for everyone, no matter where or when you will have bought the game, available immediately on official release date.

It is also public knowledge by now that we are hard at work on the state of Arizona. On the packaging of the retail box, there is actually an explicit statement that DLC Arizona will unlock for owners of this game edition when it’s eventually finished. We are delighted to confirm that Arizona DLC will also be a free game update for everybody. You will just have to wait for it a little bit longer, this part of the world is still under development.

You do not really have to worry about the particular channel where to purchase the game, whether it’s on Steam, in any other digital store, or in a bricks-and-mortar shop, the playable content will be the same for everybody.

Actually, we should also mention that next to this base release, several retail publishers have decided to also offer a richer (and more expensive) edition of the game on release, calling it Collector’s Edition. These bigger cardboard boxes are surely nicer, they contain a cool selection of additional merchandise items, so it would be for example a very cool birthday gift with extra value. But when it comes to the game itself, the installation media is the same, and the same set of DLCs will be unlocked for those buying this special edition of the game as will for people with the regular edition of the game.

Recommended price of the game is going to be $20/€20, though it is to be expected that for alternate currencies, some local market specifics and the need to display a nice round figure may cause slight variations.

We surely do not plan to stop working on American Truck Simulator world with Arizona. However, please be aware that the road ahead of us is long, and it will take us years to cover the continent. We will continue to add features to the game with regular free updates, but most further map expansion DLCs, if not all, will be paid. We have had to pick a business model allowing us to build more than ten times the amount of content compared to what we are launching with. If you are looking forward to drive coast to coast, you will not be able to do that now, and it will cost you more eventually than the price of the initial purchase.

It would be great to get the chance to reach the East Coast, it would be fabulous to be able to push north towards at least 60 degs latitude and south towards the Equatorial. But ultimately, it is up to you, our fans, if this happen – you will vote with your wallets. We expect to get the right guidance from you on future growth of our team to handle the new opportunities and challenges.

Thank you for your patience and support!

Source: SCS Blog

American Truck Simulator will be released simultaneously in retail and digital channels on February 3, 2016. But that’s not “news” any more – hopefully you have the date marked in your calendar already! ;-)

To make as big a splash as possible during the release week – to place high in the best-selling chart and to make an impression on games industry press this way – we would like to create a sales spike just after the game starts selling. We will depend on our fan community to achieve this; when we were thinking on how to catalyze things, we came up with an idea of a little bribe bonus.

Here is the deal: Go to the American Truck Simulator Steam page and choose “Follow” to make sure you get all the important announcements through Steam’s Friend Activity feed during the period leading to the game’s release.

By getting as many people into our dragnet as possible, we hope for a bit of snowball effect in raising the awareness of the game’s impending release – not just among the hard-core fans, but also in general gamer population.

In exchange for the “follow,” we are ready to give you an exclusive gift: a set of unique Steampunk-themed truck paintjobs. It’s perfectly OK if you buy the game in a retail box or any alternate digital channel – so long as you follow the game’s official Steam community announcements and activate your game on Steam during the week after its release, you are eligible for this bonus.

Source: SCS blog

SCS team published American Truck Simulator release date – February 3, 2016.

Experience the most legendary American trucks and deliver various cargoes across the United States. American Truck Simulator takes you on a journey through the breathtaking landscapes and widely recognized landmarks around the States.