The advancement of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) is set on a trajectory to transform transportation systems through enhanced efficiency and safety. Nevertheless, experimenting with CAV and human-driven vehicle (HDV) interactions creates several challenges, including safety risks, high costs, time constraints, and the limited availability of large-scale, human-labeled datasets. The following master’s research aims to address these issues by developing an open-source virtual reality (VR) simulation platform that can conduct realistic, scalable, and accessible CAV experimentation. This platform enables researchers to simulate various road setups, traffic conditions, weather settings, and vehicle models, thus making the research relevant to the real world at a lower cost. The proposed platform utilizes CARLA simulator to create immersive and realistic VR experiences for testing CAV behaviors. This platform also addresses the need for high-quality and royalty-free datasets, which will benefit research communities with limited funding resources.