Before launching your integration, use Smartcar’s simulated mode to quickly test your application. If you prefer to control the vehicle type and receive consistent data in API responses, consider using Smartcar’s Vehicle Simulator If you are not testing with a simulated vehicle, Simulated mode will randomized data for every API request.

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Test successful API requests

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1. Enabling simulated mode

When launching Smartcar Connect, pass in the query parameter mode=simulated to enable simulated mode. Smartcar’s SDKs provide a convenient option to facilitate this: 
const client = new smartcar.AuthClient({
  clientId: CLIENT_ID,
  clientSecret: CLIENT_SECRET,
  redirectUri: REDIRECT_URI,
  mode: 'simulated',
});

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2. Log into a simulated connected services account

User your simulated vehicle credentials to log in, or select any vehicle brand and log in with any email address (anything@anything.com) and any password.

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3. Send an API request to the simulated vehicle

Our API will return simulated data for each endpoint the simulated vehicle is able to provide, or randomized data for each other endpoint. For example, a simulated Tesla will return battery capacity consistently, but will return randomized data if fuel level is requested. See our API reference to learn more about the randomized data you should expect. If you use Single Select, use the below VIN and make a request as follows.
EmailVIN
smartcar@successful-request.com0SCAUDI037A5ADB1C
const scope = ["read_vehicle_info"]
const options = singleSelect: {vin: '0SCAUDI037A5ADB1C'}
authUrl = client.getAuthUrl(scope, options);

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Test successful API requests with specific VINs

If you need a test vehicle with a specific VIN, you can still use simulated mode. When logging into a test mode connected services account (step 2 above), follow this format for the email address: <VIN>@<compatibility level>.smartcar.com VIN: This can be any 17-character alphanumeric string. Note: This string does not need to be a real VIN. Smartcar does not perform any VIN-specific validations. Compatibility level: This string determines which permissions the test mode vehicle is capable of. The following table contains all valid compatibility levels and their corresponding permissions:
Compatibility levelPermissions
compatible OR phevAll permissions
incompatibleNo permissions
fuelPermissions that apply to a gasoline vehicle
bevPermissions that apply to a battery-electric vehicle
To use Single Select in test mode with a specific VIN, follow step 3 above and replace the Smartcar-provided VIN with the VIN of your choice. Then follow the email format <VIN>@<compatibility level>.smartcar.com using the same VIN.

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Test with multiple vehicles

In some cases, you may want to test the Connect flow with an account that has more vehicles than our default test accounts to help ensure your application is paginating and fetching data for a large number of vehicles correctly. You can do this with the following email format in Test mode and any password: <number>-vehicles@smartcar.com Number: Any number from 1-999. Smartcar will show this many vehicles on the permission grant screen and return this many vehicles from the /vehicles endpoint, with pagination.