What self-moving vehicle did Leonardo da Vinci sketch, often regarded as an early car?

Leonardo da Vinci sketched a self-propelled cart often regarded as an early car.

The machine appears in drawings from around 1478 to 1480 and was designed to move without being pushed by a person or pulled by an animal. Coiled springs stored mechanical energy, while a system of gears transferred that energy to the wheels. Steering could be set in advance, allowing the cart to follow a predetermined route.

The cart was probably intended for theatrical displays or court festivities rather than ordinary transportation. Its limited stored energy would have prevented long-distance travel, and it had no engine in the modern sense. The machine therefore belongs to the history of clockwork and automata as much as to automobile history.

A reconstruction displayed at the 2006 Florence Science Festival demonstrated that the basic mechanism could work. Calling it a car is useful as a comparison, but “self-propelled cart” is the more historically precise term.