Automation is sold exclusively on Steam. Steam accounts are free for everyone to create, and easy to set up!

Go to our Steam Store Page.

New updates and patches are released when they are ready. Estimated dates for update and patch releases get wildly misinterpreted and taken as guarantees, so we prefer to keep quiet until the release actually happens or we're close to it.

Automation will be leaving Early Access following the release of the Terso Update, likely some time in 2026 or early in 2027. When the Terso Update is complete, the core of Automation - the Car and Engine Designers, Lite Campaign Mode, Scenarios, Multiplayer and the BeamNG.drive exporter - will be considered feature-complete. At that point, our efforts will shift toward developing the Grand Campaign mode, which will be released as a DLC. Other potential DLCs for the core Automation game will be developed after leaving Early Access as workload permits.

Everyone who has purchased Automation up to the day of full release will receive the Grand Campaign DLC free of charge.

We've already committed a lot of our own money and more than a decade of our lives to this project, so we'll do everything in our power to make sure this game gets finished. But in the end, if you're not comfortable spending ~$30 to unlock all the currently available content, or don't like the Early Access model, don't buy the game yet and take another look when it is done.

No. If you buy the game at any point during Early Access you will get access to all the versions released after your purchase, including the finished version of the game once it is released, including the Grand Campaign DLC free of charge. What it does not include are V16 engines, unless you have one of the old pre-Steam premium preorder packages which included them, or any other DLCs we release down the road.

The best way to keep up with the development of the game is to follow our YouTube Channel and the Little Dev Update series. If we haven't announced a release date for something, it is because we don't know ourselves. We develop the game in well-defined smaller projects which you are informed about regarding scope, content and progress on our YouTube channel. We also post development news items and release notes for patches in our Steam news section.

We support Automation on PC. Linux users have been able to play Automation on several builds of Linux, but we cannot guarantee stability or full functionality of Automation on Linux.

Automation is available to play on GeForce Now but due to how that platform works, Steam Workshop support (for Automation mods and user-generated content) is not possible at this time.

We have no plans to release Automation on any mobile platform, or on any console system. Automation's UI is designed with keyboard and mouse as the primary input method, which would be difficult to convert to touchscreen or controller. Also, ported versions are very expensive to create, are often buggy and full of issues, and have very different support and update requirements to Steam.

Any game on Android or iOS that claims to be Automation is very likely to be fraudulent, and risks installing malware or other malicious software on your device.

Automation is noted as being "Playable" on the Steam Deck, but we cannot guarantee a satisfactory experience playing Automation on the Steam Deck as the game was never designed with that platform in mind. Full compatibility with the Steam Deck - to be listed as "Supported" - is not likely at this time.

We do not have plans to support VR in Automation at this time.

No. Automation is a very ambitious and complex project as it is, and we're dedicated to making it high quality, realistic and fun. We are a very small team, and creating a realistic driving simulator to a standard we would be happy with would be an extremely expensive and time-consuming project, and it would launch into a market that is already full of excellent driving simulators. The potential return on any time and money we would invest in developing our own driving simulation just doesn't exist.

However, we do collaborate with BeamNG and have created an exporter that allows you to drive your designs in BeamNG.drive, the first version of the exporter was released on July 13th 2018. There might be exporters to other driving / racing games in future, but that would require significant input from the developer of the respective target game.

Automation has an exporter API built in; community-made exporters to other games are not only possible, but encouraged!

These engines will not be included in the base Automation game. Diesel and Wankel engines are a possibility for future DLCs once Automation is in full release, but there are a lot of things we need to finish first - including other DLCs/content packs - before we can devote the time and resources to adding either of these engines to Automation. Despite their simple appearances, both diesel and Wankel engines would each require an all-new engine designer to be made for them! Two-stroke engines, however, are out of the question entirely.

Electric and hybrid drivetrains are also out of the question, as they are extremely complex to engineer; hybrid drivetrains are the most complicated engineering and software problem in the automotive industry at the time of writing, and they would be difficult to make "fun" in Automation even if we got them implemented somehow.

In the core game: inline-3, -4, -5 and -6, V6, V8, V10, V12 and V16 (for more information, see the V16 DLC FAQ below), boxer-4 and boxer-6.

All of the core engine configurations are now available in the game.

After Automation reaches full release, we may consider two DLCs; a "Small Engine DLC" consisting of inline-2, boxer-2 (Flat Twins) and V4, and a "Large Engine DLC", consisting of inline-8, flat-8 and flat-12.

Creating W- and VR-engines for the game would require a whole new set of base 3D assets because of how different the blocks and heads are for these engines compared to what we have in game. Unfortunately, due to how uncommon they are, this makes them unviable additions for the game.

Custom bank angles not only are technically difficult to implement, but also are a bad idea in general apart from very few exceptions: there are few optimal bank angles for every configuration that even make sense. The most common ones (apart from 72-degree V10s) are represented in the game. The same is true for firing orders, which also are linked to bank angles.

Automation is and will remain a (production-) car focused tycoon game; Due to the large amount of time and money it would take to properly implement any of these other vehicle classes, their technologies, and markets, unfortunately this is a "No" to all the above.

With the Advanced Trim Settings tool added in the LCV4.2 update of December 2022, it is possible to visually make vehicles of these types and export them to BeamNG.drive, but the actual mechanicals of these edited vehicles still remain as conventional, four-wheeled vehicles, and their performance calculations DO NOT change as a result.

With the completion of the Al-Rilma Update in 2025, we will have added the three principle forms of superchargers - Roots, twin-screw and centrifugal superchargers - and many more forced induction configurations, including exotic configurations such as compound turbocharging and twincharging. With this, the forced induction revamp for Automation will be complete.

There are no plans to implement these head designs. First of all, they would require a considerable amount of art asset work to create the new heads and blocks for these engines as needed, but it should also be noted that flathead and side-valve engines especially were already obsolete by the beginning of Automation's game era, and were in the process of being phased out in production cars and trucks. Hemi engines were, for many reasons, an evolutionary dead end, and aren't relevant for long enough to include in Automation as their own thing.

This isn't to denigrate any engines that have these cylinder heads/configurations; many legendary engines have had these configurations over the years. The issue is there just isn't enough incentive for the player to use these technologies when they are still relevant to the automotive industry to warrant their inclusion.

The pioneering days of the automotive industry indeed are fascinating, but we can't see that working in the context of Automation. Most of the engine layouts and tech that stood the test of time were available very early on (Inline 6, DOHC with 4 valves per cylinder... in 1922? No problem!). That means tech which doesn't stand the test of time and straight up is just inferior would have to coexist with the good tech. There would be no good incentive to use worse designs except for "it's cool", and sure it would be.

Unfortunately we cannot invest the heap of required time and money to make this tech for something that would not work well in Automation. We rather use that time and money to make Automation the best it can be. By the post WWII era, the automotive industry had mostly settled on different viable designs, most of which are represented in the game already.

For the core game we do not plan to expand the year range, we don't want to spread the existing content thin, rather we focus on making the game the best we can in the existing year range. This also avoids us having to make speculative "jumps" at what technologies become dominant in the future of motoring as well; if someone asked us in 2010 what the automotive landscape would look like in 15 years, we would be just as wrong then as if we were asked the same question today.

Automation is focused on running a car company that builds factory production road cars, and the Engine Designer is wide-ranging enough to simulate all but the most extreme piston engines as it is; we chose the 12,000 RPM rev limit as it covers virtually every production car engine ever made. There is also a technical limitation within Automation as well; due to the way we produce engine sounds, anything beyond 12,000 RPM is impossible with our current sound generation system, and remaking that system, plus all of the sound samples used in it, would be prohibitively expensive. Yes, there are very few, limited-production, highly-specialized cars running motorcycle engines able to rev higher, but as the name implies, "motorcycle" is not "car".

With the revamp of the fuel systems in Automation in the LCV4.2 Update, higher octane fuels than what already exist within the game are of limited benefit to the player. Moreover, there are practical and chemical limits in reality pertaining to just how high an octane rating a fuel can have; some of the fuels we have in the game already reach these limits, and going beyond them gets into the realm of fiction.

If anything, adding more low-octane fuels in the early game era of Automation makes for more compelling and interesting gameplay.

We are constantly working on expanding the car body and fixture options available in the game. We have contracted some of the best modders of the game to create new content for us and there is a lot more to come in future updates. Our focus is on filling the gaps in car types available over the years first, and replacing bodies that are old, outdated or otherwise not as functional as we would like. However, there is no specific schedule for adding this kind of content, new bodies and fixtures will make their way into every bigger update until the game is considered done, and most likely beyond that point.

Not entirely, no. Interiors in Automation will always be dictated by the Car Designer, and will have no visual effect on your finished cars. With the 3D fixture mode added in the LCV4.1 update, you can place fixtures inside your car to create the visual appearance of an interior, but it will have no effect on the performance of your car in Automation. Additionally, with how cars export to BeamNG.drive, any fixtures placed to create an interior may or may not export properly, nor will they have any of the same animation or functionality that a native BeamNG.drive car would have without additional modding work done by the player.

The biggest hurdle for any indie developer with a good product is visibility. We don't have a publisher that spends a considerable sum of money on marketing on our behalf, so to a large degree we rely on our players to get the word out. Spread the word, the more interest we can drum up the better! Contact YouTubers and streamers that you think would enjoy the game and tell them about it, etc.

You can help us out by translating the game to your native language, widening our potential audience. All translations for Automation currently are community based and you are most welcome to help translate and/or proofread the translations! Quite a few languages are available to be translated for as is, but we will add more over time and as requested. We use CrowdIn as a platform for our community translation efforts. It only requires you to make a free account with them.

You can join the translation project via this invite link.

We draw our beta tester candidates periodically from the Official Automation Discord. To be chosen as a beta tester, you must be over 18 years of age (as you need to sign an agreement with us), demonstrate good communication skills, and be an active and helpful member of the Automation community. Closed beta is not for FAAAN (Fool-Around-And-Accomplish-Nothing) players though; you are expected to do actual work which isn't fun all the time, often dealing with versions of Automation full of game-breaking bugs and serious balance issues, and maybe playing the game in ways you might not enjoy, but the process is very rewarding in the end when you see things come together. Beta testers who complete a sufficient amount of testing work do get a mention in Automation's game credits!

That's a very valid criticism. The simple reason is because the Car and Engine Designers have been in a constant state of intense development for some time, and any tutorial we create would immediately be obsolete with every major update. We felt it was a better use of our time to get the Car and Engine Designers into a state of feature completeness, before we go ahead with creating tutorial content. With that, tutorials will be making their return in the Terso Update, after which the Car and Engine Designers will be considered feature-complete.

Feel free to engage with your fellow players on our Discord, or on one of our other community hubs to share your tips and gain insights into getting the most out of your Automation experience!

No. While we strive to make Automation as realistic as possible and to provide an accurate representation of automotive design and engineering, we have made the deliberate choice to "gloss over" a lot of the low-impact design choices in an engine. We want to make the choices players make to be impactful and as meaningful as possible; what we don't want is to have players bogged down for hours in the Engine Designer, specifying the tensile strengths of every fastener in their engine, for example!