GameObject.Find can't use variables?

[ZeroRadius]

Hello Guys and Gals,

I am making a racing game. I am trying to create waypoints for the AI to follow. I am using GameObject.Find and transform.LookAt to accomplish this. If I put a string directly into Find() like this GameObject.Find(“wayPoint”); it works great. But when I try to use a variable i get an error.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
AiController.go () (at Assets/myAssets/scripts/AiController.cs:18)
AiController.FixedUpdate () (at Assets/myAssets/scripts/AiController.cs:26)

Here is my code:

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class AiController : MonoBehaviour 
{
	
	public string wayPoint = "wayPoint"; // Name of next waypoint
	//private Transform target;
	private GameObject target;
	void turn()
	{
		
	}
	
	void go()
	{
		target = GameObject.Find(wayPoint);//transform.Find("wayPoint");
		transform.LookAt(target.transform);
		rigidbody.AddRelativeForce(Vector3.forward/*left*/ * 200);
		Debug.Log(target);
		
	}
	
	void FixedUpdate()
	{
		go();
	}
}

any explanation?

[whydoidoit]

The performance of this is going to be badly impacted by finding the game object every FixedUpdate, you should find it early and not do it again until you need another one.

Verify that the value in the inspector (not your default value) is the correct name.

[hbalint1]

You made a GameObject type variable called ‘target’, then you search for a GameObject called “wayPoint”.

Maybe you shuld declare this: private WayPoint target;

instead of this: private GameObject target;