What name is given to Leonardo da Vinci’s spring-powered, self-propelled cart?

Leonardo da Vinci’s spring-powered, self-propelled cart is called the self-propelled cart.

Leonardo designed the cart around 1478–1480, making it one of his earliest known studies of autonomous motion. It used coiled springs concealed beneath the vehicle to drive its wheels. Steering could be set before operation, allowing the cart to follow a predetermined route rather than being controlled continuously by a driver.

The design is often described as a Renaissance predecessor of a robot or programmable vehicle. However, it was not an automobile in the modern sense: it had no engine, fuel system, brakes, or steering wheel. Its movement depended on stored mechanical energy from the springs.

A full-scale working reconstruction was built in the early twenty-first century from Leonardo’s drawings. The cart is sometimes linked to theatrical pageants at the Italian court, although the surviving drawings do not prove exactly how the original device was used.