What name is given to Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical cart that could move without being pushed?

Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical cart is known as the self-propelled cart.

Leonardo designed the cart around 1478–1480, making it one of his earliest recorded attempts to create a programmable machine. Springs wound inside drums supplied the power, while a system of gears transferred that power to the wheels. A programmable steering system, set with pegs, could determine the cart’s path.

The cart was not self-propelled in the modern motorized sense. It had no engine, fuel system, or electronic controls. Instead, it stored mechanical energy in coiled springs, much as a clock stores energy before releasing it. The surviving drawings are incomplete, so modern reconstructions have been important for testing how the mechanism may have worked.

The cart may have been intended for theatrical performances or court celebrations rather than transport. In 2006, the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence built a reconstruction that demonstrated the design could operate. Leonardo’s cart is therefore significant both as an early vehicle concept and as an example of mechanical automation.