Epcot’s Test Track 3.0 Strives for Optimism at a Time When We Could Really Use It

When Test Track reopened at Epcot in July, it marked the third version of the car-based thrill ride that first welcomed guests at the very end of 1998. Test Track 3.0, as it’s called, updates the experience with a focus on new automotive technology and a warmer, earthier vibe than the Tron-ish technical aesthetic of Test Track 2.0. Instead of driving through what looks like the inside of a computer, you’ll enjoy a stretch of road based on California’s scenic Pacific Coast Highway, as two voices—one an unseen human narrator, the other supposedly the voice of the self-driving car’s on-board AI—banter almost flirtatiously. The actual thrills feel the same, from the near collision with a semi truck, to the final outdoor lap that blasts you up to 65 miles per hour, but all the notes within that structure have been updated, giving regulars a new twist on one of the park’s best-known and longest-running rides.

As Scott Mallwitz, Executive Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering, explains, Test Track’s latest redesign is part of an ongoing attempt to keep the ride’s story fresh and interesting. “We’ve got an attraction that’s always been highly rated with our fans that just needed to be lifted,” he tells us within Epcot. “Conversations with [the attraction’s sponsor] General Motors were like, ‘let’s tell a different story.’ Test Track 1.0: great ride, great attraction, really a safety story, you know.” And Test Track 2.0, which had a feature where guests could build their own car at computer stations in the queue and then “test” them on the ride, “was a styling story, not really a design story,” as Mallwitz puts it. 

Since officially opening in 1999, Test Track has undergone a major renovation once every 12 years or so. And for this latest update, Mallwitz says, GM and Imagineering had their eyes on the future. “I think GM was interested in talking about where are we really going with this thing, you know—what is the future of mobility and for us, and kind of weaving that optimism as part of the DNA into a story about movement, into a story about how we might be able to navigate our space, our planet.”

As part of that look into what the future of cars might bring us, Test Track 3.0 gives its car a personality—a quippy female voice that represents the artificial intelligence supposedly guiding us. The debate over self-driving cars is a legitimate one that hopefully hasn’t been settled, but including it in an attraction that will most likely run without major alterations for over a decade indicates that auto manufacturers like GM assume this technology is here to stay. 

Much of the rest of the new Test Track evinces a more human touch—namely, physical sets that reflect Epcot’s long history of dark rides. As Mallwitz points out, the park’s original automotive attraction, the ‘80s/’90s classic World of Motion, was one of Epcot’s many enchanting, animatronic-filled tableaux. Part of the goal with Test Track 3.0 was to “rediscover that DNA that was in the Transportation Pavilion originally”—here Mallwitz uses the name given to this building when it housed World of Motion. And so they built what the Imagineer calls “an old-school practical set”—adding that it’s what Imagineering “loves to do.” “We’re in a dark ride, right? So let’s celebrate it.