What Leonardo da Vinci invention is often called the world's first robotic vehicle?

Leonardo da Vinci’s self-propelled cart is often called the world’s first robotic vehicle.

Leonardo designed the cart around 1478–1480, probably as a theatrical device for court festivities. Springs wound on drums supplied power, while a system of gears transferred that force to the wheels. The cart could be programmed to travel a predetermined distance by adjusting the position of pegs on its control mechanism.

The machine was not a modern robot with sensors or independent decision-making. It followed a mechanical program built into its gears, which is why historians describe it as an early programmable automaton. A reconstruction displayed in 2006 showed that the design could work, although some details in the surviving drawing remain open to interpretation.

People sometimes confuse the cart with Leonardo’s armored vehicle, but the cart was a small self-moving mechanism intended for spectacle rather than warfare.