What automated cart did Leonardo da Vinci design centuries before modern cars?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a self-propelled cart centuries before the modern automobile.

Leonardo’s drawing, dated to about 1478–1480, shows a three-wheeled vehicle powered by coiled springs. When the springs were wound, they stored energy; releasing that energy turned the cart’s wheels through a system of gears. The design therefore moved without a person pushing or pulling it.

The cart was probably intended for theatrical effects or court entertainment rather than transportation. Its steering arrangement could make the vehicle follow a predetermined path, allowing it to perform a programmed movement on a stage or in a courtyard.

The machine is often called the world’s first self-propelled vehicle, but it was not an automobile in the modern sense. It had no engine, brakes, passenger cabin, or road-use system. A reconstructed cart demonstrated that the mechanism could work, although historians still debate some details of the original design.