Leonardo da Vinci designed a self-propelled cart that could move without a visible animal or human driver.
The machine appears in drawings from around 1478 to 1480. Its motion came from coiled springs, rather than an engine powered by steam, fuel, or electricity. A system of gears transferred the spring force to the wheels, while a steering arrangement helped determine the cart’s path. The device may have been intended for theatrical effects or ceremonial presentations rather than transport.
Leonardo’s drawings do not provide every construction detail, and scholars continue to examine how the mechanism was meant to operate. In 2006, a team in Florence built a working interpretation based on the surviving sketches. The cart is often called a robot or the first automobile, but those labels can mislead: it was a spring-powered mechanical vehicle, not a modern car and not an autonomous computer-controlled machine.