Euro Truck Simulator 2's 1.61 Open Beta Arrives with Proximity Exploration

The 1.61 Open Beta for Euro Truck Simulator 2 is now live, succeeding an earlier Experimental Beta phase. Players who tested the Experimental branch are advised to switch to the Open Beta to continue receiving updates; saves from the Experimental Beta carry over without issue.

What changed

• Proximity Exploration is the headline addition: when enabled, it automatically reveals a small area of the map around the player's vehicle as they travel, removing the need to drive over every individual road segment to register it as explored.
• The feature is described as a quality-of-life option, intended to surface nearby accessible roads and points of interest — rest stops, toll gates, border crossings, and gas stations among them — without removing the sense of organic discovery.
• Multi-Function Display (MFD) and In-Game Menu changes, which had been part of the Experimental Beta, have been postponed from 1.61 entirely. The developers cited community feedback as the reason, stating they want more time to refine both features before release.

The beta is open for feedback submission through SCS Software's official forums, with bug reports explicitly encouraged.

For players chasing 100% map completion in particular, Proximity Exploration represents a meaningful reduction in the tedium of road-by-road discovery — while the deferral of the MFD and menu overhaul suggests those interface changes still need work before they're ready for a stable release.