Plain-AyI
← All projects
Robotics & simulation

CARLA

A free driving simulator that researchers use to develop and test self-driving car software safely.

Research-backed

What it does

CARLA is an open-source simulator for self-driving car research. It provides virtual cities with streets, buildings and vehicles where autonomous-driving software can be developed, trained and tested without putting anyone at risk.

Researchers can choose which sensors a virtual car carries and change the environmental conditions. Related projects include a leaderboard for comparing driving systems, a traffic-scenario runner and a bridge to ROS, a common robotics toolkit. The city layouts, buildings and vehicles are free to use.

This version is built on Unreal Engine 5 and needs a powerful computer with a high-end graphics card.

Who it's for

Researchers, students and engineers working on autonomous driving.

Can I use it without coding?

Developers only. Has to be built from source with Unreal Engine on a powerful machine. New to this? Start here.

Can I run it?

Cost
FreeNothing to pay or sign up for.
Runs on
Linux, Windows
Computer
Works best on a powerful computer or one with a graphics card (GPU)
Privacy
Runs on your own device: your data stays with you
API key
Not needed

Try it

Using Claude Code, Cursor or another AI coding assistant? Paste the prompt and it will walk you through the setup.New to this?

Before you install

  • Only download from the official GitHub page. Copies with similar names exist for many popular projects.
  • License (MIT): Very permissive: free to use, change and share, including for business.
  • More on staying safe

Where people are talking about it