What Leonardo da Vinci device is often considered an early self-propelled cart?

Leonardo da Vinci’s early self-moving vehicle was the self-propelled cart.

Leonardo designed the cart around 1478–1480. Its movement came from tightly wound coiled springs concealed inside the frame. Gears transferred the spring force to the wheels, allowing the vehicle to move without an animal pulling it.

The cart is frequently described as a precursor to the automobile or a robot because it could move autonomously along a programmed path. A steering mechanism based on pins in a drum could determine the direction of travel. The cart may have been intended for theatrical performances or court pageants rather than transportation.

The design is not a modern car: it had no engine, fuel system, brakes, or passenger cabin. It was a clockwork vehicle powered by stored mechanical energy. In 2006, researchers and museum specialists built working reconstructions to test how Leonardo’s mechanisms might have operated.