What automated cart did Leonardo da Vinci design to move without a person pushing it?

Leonardo da Vinci’s cart designed to move without a person pushing it was the self-propelled cart.

Leonardo sketched the cart around 1478–1480. Springs wound inside the vehicle supplied energy, while a system of gears controlled the release of that energy. A programmable steering mechanism could make the cart follow a set path, allowing it to perform a planned movement without a driver.

The cart was probably intended for theatrical effects or court entertainment rather than transportation. It could have carried scenery or appeared to move magically during a performance. Because the surviving drawing does not preserve every construction detail, modern reconstructions have helped researchers test how the mechanism might have worked.

The cart is sometimes called an early robot or an ancestor of the automobile. Those labels are useful comparisons, but it was neither a modern autonomous vehicle nor an engine-powered car. Its key innovation was stored mechanical energy combined with automatic motion control.