Update 1.62 Open Beta Is Here, and Route 66 Turns 100
SCS Software opened the American Truck Simulator 1.62 beta on October 20, and it is a travel-themed update through and through. Tourist boards, the collectible roadside signs that ETS2 players have been photographing for a while, now appear in the Atlas for ATS, with a dedicated interface for tracking the ones you have found. Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Washington and Louisiana each get one board, Nebraska gets two, and completing any of them earns a postcard.
The timing is deliberate. Route 66 was commissioned on November 11, 1926, and SCS is marking the centennial with a Route 66 Cross-Border Tourist Board whose locations span Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, plus a matching air freshener for your cab. Given how much of the ATS map now follows the old highway, it makes sense to put a hundred-year-old road at the center of a patch.
Open betas are also when the mod ecosystem shows its manners. ATS map expansions, truck packs and sound overhauls are all tracked against SCS version numbers, and most authors update within days. It is a healthier picture than what is forming around Rockstar’s big release, where people search for GTA 6 free mods before a PC version even exists and the publisher has already posted rules about what mods may do. SCS has never needed rules like that, because the community mostly polices itself.
What else is in the beta
The Volvo VNL received improved interior lighting and materials, and the truck will now show up in AI traffic, which it oddly never did. Eleven new songs were added to the Escape radio station. There are the usual smaller map touch-ups and bug fixes, and the full changelog is posted on the Steam beta branch. To join, opt into the public_beta branch in Steam properties and expect mods to misbehave until authors update.
The map keeps growing
September was a strong month. South Dakota arrived on September 24 for $11.99, with 13 cities and about 680 miles of new road, and Road Trip: Ford followed on September 29 with a 1967 Mustang, a 2023 F-150, a 2024 Bronco and a 2006 Crown Victoria as drivable cars for $7.99. Indiana and North Dakota are both announced, and SCS has confirmed its first Canadian DLC is British Columbia, which will take the map north from Washington state.
For a game that started with California in 2016, covering half the United States ten years later is a quiet achievement. Route 66’s birthday is as good a reason as any to drive the length of it before 1.62 leaves beta.
