What Leonardo da Vinci machine is regarded as an early self-propelled cart?

Leonardo da Vinci’s self-propelled cart is an early design for a vehicle that could move without being pushed or pulled by an animal.

Leonardo’s drawing dates from around 1478–1480. The cart used two large driving wheels and a spring-powered mechanism hidden beneath its frame. A steering arrangement and a programmable control system, made with shaped cams, were intended to set the vehicle’s path. The springs supplied stored energy, rather than an engine or fuel.

The cart is sometimes described as the world’s first automobile, but that label can mislead. Leonardo did not create a road vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine, and the surviving evidence is a design rather than a documented full-scale demonstration. Modern reconstructions have shown that the mechanism can work in principle.

The design may have been intended for theatrical or ceremonial use, such as moving scenery or an object across a court. Its importance lies in combining stored mechanical energy, steering, and automatic control centuries before motor cars became practical.