What self-propelled vehicle did Leonardo da Vinci design for movement without animals?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a self-propelled cart that could move without animals.

The vehicle appears in drawings from the late fifteenth century and is powered by coiled springs hidden inside its body. Those springs would drive the cart’s wheels through a system of gears. Steering could be set in advance, allowing the vehicle to follow a predetermined route rather than being guided continuously by a driver.

The machine is sometimes called Leonardo’s car, but “self-propelled cart” is a more precise description. It was not an automobile in the modern sense: it had no engine, brakes, steering wheel, or passenger cabin. Its movement depended on stored mechanical energy, much like a large clockwork mechanism.

A replica built for an exhibition in Florence in 2006 demonstrated that the basic mechanism could work. The cart’s historical purpose remains uncertain. It may have been intended as an entertainment device for court celebrations, where an automatically moving object could create a dramatic effect.