DeepRacer car can’t calibrate correctly

First off, unpin the compute unit from the car and check the attached wires are all firmly seated and the correct way around based on the colour guide next to plug on the compute unit, and also on the car itself. Next re-attach the car and compute and go through the calibration process again.

When you get to the step that has the reverse direction button, check the direction the wheels are turning (in your case probably backwards) and press the reverse direction button once. Note: This will not change the direction the wheels are turning at this point. Turn the car off using the almost inaccessible switch behind the front left wheel (when looking down on the car from above) by pushing the switch towards the centre of the car. Click Next the few times required to complete all of the calibration settings without changing anything.

Turn the car back on and complete the calibration of the car as per the instructions in the console, again don't worry if the wheels are still going the wrong way at this time. Once you have completed the calibration process, put the car into manual driving mode and use joystick controller in the console to manually drive the car to check the calibration. It should drive in the correct direction based on the inputs you give it, you might want to have the car off the ground for this (as per when you calibrate the car) so you can more easily monitor how the car responds rather than worry about the car driving at speed, like when calibrating the car be mindful the wheels move at speed so keep a hand on top of the top to stop it coming off the block you are using to elevate the wheels.

If this still hasn't solved the issue the next thing we tend to do on the DeepRacer Pit Crew is re-flash the car by building a Ubuntu 20.04 USB stick and then using it to update the car. This tends to solve 99% of the problems we have with cars.