Start with a virtual robot¶

Practice PhysiCar AI right away in the browser-based cloud simulator, with no kit. You get your own cloud machine running a virtual PhysiCar — a digital twin with the same app, sensors, and Web API as the physical robot, so what you build here runs unchanged on a real kit.

The simulator is not free

While your machine is running, it is billed from your credits by machine spec — see Machine specs & billing. Billing stops when the machine stops.

Run the simulator¶

Sign in at physicar.ai, then click Simulator at the top right. (Your PhysiCar AI account is all you need — no GitHub account.)
The PhysiCar Simulator modal shows your machine's state. The first time, pick a machine spec (default 4 vCPU · 16GB RAM) and click Create. Creation takes about 2 minutes.
The simulator opens in a new tab as VS Code in the browser — you're in when the file explorer appears on the left.

Already have a machine?

The same modal shows Connect while it's running and Resume when it's stopped — see Manage your session.

Tour the workspace¶

The file explorer holds two things:

examples/ — ready-to-run example notebooks: line tracing, deep-learning racing, navigation, object detection, and a realtime voice agent, plus physicar-ros and physicar-sim notebooks that tour the robot and the simulator. Supporting files live in examples/assets/; when you run a notebook, pick the Python 3 (PhysiCar AI) kernel.
app.physicar — click it to open the PhysiCar App.

The App stacks service panels via the tab badges at the top (you can select several at once), with a live Sensors column on the right:

SIMULATOR — the virtual robot's 3D world (on by default). Switch worlds or install shared ones here; if the world ships with an Evaluation, the ▶ button runs it
CONTROL — drive the car by hand (on by default)
MYAPP — a web app you run yourself on port 5000; the examples' web views appear here
VNC — the Linux desktop display

In the activity bar (far left) there is also the PHYSICAR AI panel — an AI chat that shares its sign-in with the App. It comes with tools: it can drive the robot, inspect and change the simulator, and edit and run your notebooks.

Tip

Closed the App by mistake? Click app.physicar in the file explorer to reopen it. Broke an example? Reset Examples in the PHYSICAR AI panel's settings restores the originals.

Machine specs & billing¶

You pick the machine spec each time you Create or Resume:

Machine	Credits per hour
4 vCPU · 16GB RAM (default)	2
8 vCPU · 32GB RAM	3
16 vCPU · 64GB RAM	4

Billing is prorated per second while the machine runs and is deducted from your credits. In a classroom, student usage is deducted from the teacher's sponsor limit.

Manage your session¶

Everything runs from the PhysiCar Simulator modal (the Simulator button):

Connect — open your running machine's workspace.
Stop — stop the machine and billing. Your files are kept.
Resume — restart a stopped machine: about 1 minute, or 2–3 minutes if it has been stopped for more than an hour. Your files are kept.
Delete — remove the machine and all its files. This cannot be undone.

The machine also manages itself:

After about 30 minutes of inactivity (the tab closed, for example) it stops automatically — billing stops, files are kept.
After 30 days without a run it is deleted automatically, files included. The modal shows your last-used time as a reminder.

Next steps¶

Head to the Examples — step-by-step tutorials for the notebooks in examples/ and more.

🛠 Mission: create your machine, open app.physicar, and drive the virtual car with the CONTROL tab while watching the Sensors column react.

Learn more

Credits in detail → Credits & pricing. How the simulator works → PhysiCar Sim. Got a kit → Start with a physical robot.