What machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to move without horses, using springs and a system of gears?

Leonardo da Vinci’s spring-driven vehicle is known as the self-propelled cart.

Leonardo designed the cart in the late 15th century, probably around 1478–1480. Unlike a normal wagon pulled by animals, it was intended to move through stored energy from coiled springs. Gears and a programmed steering mechanism controlled the wheels, allowing the cart to travel along a predetermined route.

The design is often described as an early ancestor of the automobile or a mechanical theatrical prop. It may have been intended for court spectacles, where a vehicle could move on its own during a pageant. Leonardo’s surviving drawings do not establish that he built a full working version, so modern reconstructions are important evidence for how the mechanism might have operated.

The cart is sometimes confused with Leonardo’s robotic knight. The cart was a wheeled vehicle powered by springs; the robotic knight was a humanoid mechanical figure operated by cables and gears. Both demonstrate Leonardo’s interest in automation before electric motors or combustion engines existed.