'The thing you want to instantiate is null' - unity error when instantiating

Question

I have a Game Object called 'car' in my Assets folder. I have this code in C# unity to instantiate it.

GameObject car; 

    void Start () {

        Vector3 position = new Vector3(5, 5, 5);

        GameObject newGameObject = Instantiate(car);

        newGameObject.transform.position = position;

    }

And I get this error - 'the thing you want to instantiate is null'

What might be the problem ?

Answer 1

The GameObject car is not set to anything. That means it's null. This is exactly what the error message is telling you. Just because you happen to have a prefab named 'car' in your Assets folder doesn't mean you can name a variable car and expect Unity to know you're talking about the same thing.

See my answer to your other question to learn one way to instantiate a prefab.