Hit the open road with your friends in American Truck Simulator's new 'Convoy' mode

Back in May, SCS Software announced that Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator would be getting official multiplayer support in the form of Convoy Mode, enabling up to eight players to hit shared virtual roads. After a couple months of "experimental'' open beta, it's finally time to take your place in that big ol' online convoy: The multiplayer update is now live.

Convoy mode gives players the ability to create and host private online trucking sessions with synchronized traffic, time, weather conditions, and even the ability to take on the same jobs. As SCS originally announced, it's capped at eight digital drivers, but the plan is to increase that number in the future: Right now they're keeping it relatively small because even though it's live, the mode is still a work in progress.

Session hosts will have full control over their online environment and the ability to kick those who need kicking, while players can browse and filter sessions based on what they're interested in doing. Naturally, rig-to-rig communications are supported through CB radio broadcasts, quick replies, or regular text chat. And in what I think is a pretty smart move, players who run into trouble during an online session will be able to revert to a savefile made before joining the session, so profile progress won't be lost because of a server crash or griefer.

There are still some limitations and features that haven't yet been implemented:

• Mods in Convoy mode are not supported in the initial release.   
• AI vehicles might disappear when a player disconnects.   
• Lifting bridges are not synchronized. They will be stationary for the initial release of Convoy.   
• When using an owned trailer, there might be a company trailer spawned in the same location you are supposed to go to to load your cargo.   
• Steam invites work only through the Steam overlay.   
• CB radio broadcast (hotkey "X") interferes with the text input line.   
• The on-screen map in Convoy "M" zooms out together with chat scrolling in the Route Advisor.

"From friends to VTC's, we are excited to see how you will enjoy Convoy and we look forward to hearing your constructive feedback on this new online feature," SCS said.

The 1.41 "Convoy" update is live now in American Truck Simulator. It isn't currently available in Euro Truck Simulator 2, but should be coming very soon: SCS is going to stream ETS2 Convoy action tomorrow, July 15.

The update also brings about the first steps in a planned reskin of California, adds new time and weather control options to the photo mode, expands the map legend, and more—full details are available on Steam. 

And now, we celebrate the arrival of the big update in true truckin' style: with some CW McCall.