What Leonardo da Vinci vehicle was designed to move without horses or oars?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a self-propelled cart intended to move without horses or oars.

The cart appears in Leonardo’s notebooks from the late fifteenth century. Springs stored energy and released it through a mechanism connected to the wheels. A programmable steering system, using shaped components, could make the vehicle follow a set path. Because no surviving full-size original is known, historians usually describe it as a conceptual mechanical vehicle rather than a proven automobile.

The cart is sometimes called the world’s first robot or the first automobile, but those labels need qualification. It had no engine in the modern sense, carried limited energy, and was probably intended for theatrical or ceremonial use. It may have been designed for court spectacles in Renaissance Italy.

Modern reconstructions have demonstrated that the mechanism can roll when built from the drawing. The invention is significant because it combines stored mechanical energy, transmission, and programmed steering in one compact design.