You know the basics. Now we make AutoDrive useful.

Lesson 01

Plan Before You Press REC

A useful AutoDrive network starts before the first waypoint is recorded. Walk or drive the farm and decide where traffic should enter, circulate and leave.

Mark the awkward bits first

• Tight gates and blind corners
• Buildings with narrow trigger areas
• Places where long trailers need to straighten
• Busy yard crossings
• Field entrances shared with road traffic
• Locations where vehicles must leave after loading or unloading

Lesson 02

Farmyard Routing

Farmyards punish lazy route design because everything is close together. Keep routes away from doors, parked tools, walls and trigger clutter. Use smooth arcs instead of sharp waypoint zigzags.

Lesson 03

Field Entrances That Actually Work

Do not put the field destination directly in the gateway simply because the gateway looks important. Give the vehicle space to leave the road, straighten up and clear other traffic.

For long combinations, build the approach for the trailer, not just the tractor. Test entry from the direction vehicles will really arrive.

Lesson 04

Parking Locations

Current AutoDrive supports assigning a parking destination and sending a vehicle to park. Use that deliberately: tractor parking, truck parking, combine parking or a safe waiting area.

Park where the machine is out of the traffic stream and can leave again. A beautiful parking marker inside a dead-end shed becomes less beautiful when a header trailer arrives behind it.

Main Farm → Tractor Parking

Lesson 05

Refill And Unload Points

AutoDrive has dedicated loading and unloading behaviour, plus automatic refuelling and repair support in the current FS25 build. Triggers therefore deserve proper route geometry.

Approach

Arrive straight enough for the correct vehicle or trailer trigger to register.

Working point

Place the destination where the vehicle can actually load, unload, refuel or repair.

Escape route

Make sure the vehicle can leave after the task completes.

Test with the equipment that will genuinely use the point. A seed drill, tanker and articulated trailer do not share the same idea of “close enough”.

Lesson 06

Productions

Productions combine everything you have learned: a road approach, a trigger, other traffic and an exit. Keep delivery and collection movements obvious.

When possible, arrange a simple flow:

Entrance → Delivery / Collection → Exit

If incoming and outgoing vehicles repeatedly cross each other, redesign the route instead of hoping collision detection becomes a traffic policeman with supernatural patience.

Lesson 07

Vehicle Destinations

Destinations should describe jobs and locations clearly. Use names that still make sense after the network grows.

AutoDrive supports destination filtering and folders in the current build. We will exploit folders properly in Network Engineer; for now, develop good naming habits.

Lesson 08

One-Way Farm Traffic

A busy yard becomes dramatically easier to manage when vehicles are encouraged to move in a predictable direction.

Turn your Main Farm into a simple circulation loop: Entrance → work area → parking / triggers → exit.

Use one-way green main routes where opposing traffic would create trouble. Two-way routes remain useful on quiet lanes, but “everything blue because it was quicker” is how future-you acquires a Route Doctor appointment.

Lesson 09

Basic Intersections

Connect the farm to the wider road network with a clean T-junction or simple crossroad. Keep the geometry smooth and the branch points obvious.

• Do not stack unnecessary waypoints in the junction.
• Give long vehicles room to turn.
• Check every allowed direction.
• Test each destination from more than one approach.
• Keep opposing lanes separated where space allows.

Lesson 10

Test With Real Machinery

A network is not validated because one small tractor survived it. Run a tractor and long trailer, a truck, and at least one large machine through your busiest routes.

Watch for

• Trailer cut-in
• Roof or tree collisions
• Trigger alignment
• Blocked exits
• Opposing traffic
• Corner speed
• Parking clearance
• Field-gate approach

The current AutoDrive build includes vehicle-specific corner-speed and collision-detection settings, but good geometry still beats asking software to rescue bad geometry.

Route Doctor / Farm Driver

When The Working Farm Fights Back

Misses a trigger

Check alignment, marker position and whether the correct part of the vehicle reaches the trigger.

Trailer clips buildings

Increase turn radius and move route points away from the obstacle.

Head-on yard traffic

Replace the conflict with a one-way circulation pattern where practical.

Can enter, cannot leave

Build the exit as carefully as the approach.

Parking blocks traffic

Move the parking destination off the active route and retest with long equipment.

Random-looking stop

Inspect route continuity, collision space and the notification history before deleting half the network in a fit of agricultural diplomacy.