What Leonardo da Vinci invention is often described as one of the earliest self-propelled carts?

Leonardo da Vinci’s self-propelled cart is often described as one of the earliest self-moving vehicles.

Leonardo’s cart was drawn around 1478–1480. Unlike a simple wagon pulled by an animal, it was designed to move through stored mechanical energy. Two large springs, comparable in principle to coiled springs, powered the wheels through a system of gears and transmission components. A steering mechanism also appears in the design.

The cart may have been intended for theatrical effects rather than transportation or warfare. Leonardo worked on court entertainments, and a vehicle that moved without a visible driver could have created a dramatic spectacle. The surviving drawing does not provide every construction detail, so modern reconstructions require interpretation.

The cart is not a car in the modern sense: it had no internal-combustion engine, fuel system, or practical passenger role. In 2006, researchers at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence built a working reconstruction based on Leonardo’s drawings, demonstrating that the mechanism could function.