Your First AutoDrive Route

Lesson 01

What Actually Is AutoDrive?

AutoDrive creates a network of routes that vehicles can follow automatically.

Think of that network as a road map drawn specifically for your machinery. The map contains:

Waypoints

Individual points that make up the route.

Connections

Lines telling AutoDrive how those points connect.

Directions

Information telling AutoDrive which way vehicles may travel.

Destinations

Named locations such as Farm, Shop, Field 1, Grain Mill, Silo, Production, and Vehicle Parking.

Once a vehicle can reach the AutoDrive network, AutoDrive can calculate a route through that network to the destination you choose.

Where AutoDrive Actually Saves Your Routes

Your working AutoDrive network is saved with the Farming Simulator savegame. On a default Windows installation, the live route file is normally:

C:\Users\<YourName>\Documents\My Games\FarmingSimulator2025\savegameX\AutoDrive_config.xml

savegameX means the save slot you are using, for example savegame1, savegame2 or savegame10.

The file contains the route graph AutoDrive uses for that save: waypoint positions, connections, destinations and destination groups. When the game saves, AutoDrive writes the current network back to that savegame folder.

What About Route Manager?

Route Manager exports are separate from the live savegame copy. By default AutoDrive keeps its route library under:

C:\Users\<YourName>\Documents\My Games\FarmingSimulator2025\modSettings\FS25_AutoDrive\routesManager\

The exported route XML files live inside the routes folder, while routes.xml keeps the Route Manager's list of saved routes. Loading one through Route Manager imports that stored network back into AutoDrive.

Lesson 02

Before We Touch Anything

For the Academy lessons we recommend using the current official AutoDrive release. Do not learn route building on an ancient copy somebody found buried in a mod pack.

Checklist

• Farming Simulator 25 is up to date
• AutoDrive is installed
• AutoDrive is enabled for your save
• You have loaded into the game
• You are sitting inside a vehicle
• You are somewhere with plenty of room to practise

For your first lesson, choose a normal tractor without an enormous trailer attached. Learning AutoDrive while dragging thirty metres of machinery around a tiny yard is unnecessarily ambitious.

Lesson 03

Meet The AutoDrive HUD

AutoDrive is controlled through its in-game HUD. If the HUD is closed, the default FS25 shortcut is:

Left ALT + Numpad 0

To open AutoDrive's settings directly:

Left ALT + Left CTRL + Numpad 0

The mouse pointer can be shown or hidden using Middle Mouse Button. Your own key bindings may differ if you have changed them in Farming Simulator's controls menu.

Lesson 04

Understanding The Network

Enter AutoDrive's Edit Mode. You should now be able to see the route network. The little points are waypoints. The lines joining those points are the routes AutoDrive vehicles follow.

If the route lines are visible but the waypoint dots aren't, press Right CTRL. That toggles waypoint visibility.

Know Your Colours

Green

One-way main route. Vehicles travel along the connection in one direction. Think normal lane of traffic.

Dark Blue

Two-way main route. Vehicles can travel along the same route in either direction. Useful for narrow roads, farm tracks and places where two separate lanes aren't necessary.

Yellow

One-way secondary route. A lower-priority alternative to the main route.

Brown

Two-way secondary route. A lower-priority route that can be travelled in both directions.

Light Blue

Reverse route. This tells AutoDrive that the vehicle can travel backwards along that section. We will deal properly with reversing later. For today, simply recognise it.

Lesson 05

Your First Route

Now we build something. Find an open stretch of road on the Academy Proving Grounds. For this exercise we are going to create:

Academy Farm → Shop

Put your tractor at the beginning of the route and enter Edit Mode. Find the REC button.

Recording A One-Way Route

Left-click REC. Begin driving. AutoDrive will create waypoints behind the vehicle as you travel.

Drive smoothly down the road. Avoid sharp steering movements, cutting corners, driving onto kerbs, clipping signs, sudden U-turns, or testing the structural integrity of somebody's hedge.

Lesson 06

One-Way Or Two-Way?

This decision matters.

Lesson 07

Create Your First Destination

A route is useful. A named destination makes it useful to AutoDrive.

Drive to the end of our training route near the Shop. Create a destination point and name it:

Academy Shop

Keep destination names short and obvious.

Once your network grows to hundreds of destinations, good naming becomes extremely important.

Lesson 08

Send The Tractor

Time for the moment of truth. Move your tractor back towards the Academy Farm. Exit Edit Mode. Select Academy Shop as the AutoDrive destination. Start AutoDrive.

Take your hands off the controls. The vehicle should locate the route and begin travelling toward the destination.

Watch it. Do not immediately wander off to make tea. Your first few route tests should always be observed.

Look for

• Poor cornering
• Obstacles
• Waypoints too close to objects
• Sharp direction changes
• Bad road positioning
• Vehicles crossing into opposing traffic
• Problems entering the destination

If the vehicle arrives safely: congratulations. You've just built your first functioning AutoDrive route.

Route Doctor / Learner

Did It Go Wrong?

Good. Seriously. Learning why a route fails is one of the fastest ways to understand AutoDrive.

Tractor won't start

Check that the destination is reachable from your current network.

Tractor goes the wrong way

Check the direction of your route connections.

Vehicle stops halfway

Look for a broken or missing connection.

Tractor cuts a corner

Inspect the waypoint positions around the bend.

Vehicle hits something

Give the route more clearance.

Waypoints have disappeared

If route lines remain visible, try Right CTRL.

Lesson 09

Basic Editing

Eventually you will create a waypoint in the wrong place. Everybody does.

AutoDrive lets you repair the network rather than recording the entire route again.

Move a waypoint

Grab the waypoint using the right mouse button and reposition it.

Delete a waypoint

Use Left ALT + Left Mouse Button on the waypoint.

Create a waypoint

Use Left CTRL + Left Mouse Button in Edit Mode.

Connect waypoints

Connections can be manually created between existing points. This is extremely useful when joining a new farm road onto an existing network. But check the direction before celebrating. A connection pointing backwards is perfectly capable of looking correct while being completely useless.

Lesson 10

Your First Junction

Our final Learner exercise adds one branch. Your existing route is Academy Farm → Academy Shop. Now add Academy Farm → Field 01.

You now have a junction where the routes divide. AutoDrive needs valid connections allowing it to choose either destination.

Build the Field 01 branch. Create the destination Field 01, then test both journeys:

• Academy Farm → Academy Shop
• Academy Farm → Field 01

Both should work. If one succeeds and the other fails, inspect your junction. This is your first taste of route engineering.