Leonardo da Vinci’s wheeled vehicle is commonly called the self-propelled cart.
Leonardo drew the machine in the Codex Atlanticus, probably around 1478 to 1480. The design used coiled springs inside a wooden chassis to store energy. As the springs unwound, gears transferred motion to the wheels, allowing the cart to move without an animal pulling it.
The cart was not an automobile in the modern sense. It had no engine, steering system comparable to a modern car, or fuel tank. Its stored mechanical energy gave it only limited travel, but it represented an important attempt to make a vehicle move independently.
A full-scale reconstruction built for a 2006 exhibition showed that the mechanism could operate. Scholars also suggest that the cart may have been intended for theatrical stage effects, because its movement could be preset and its path controlled.