What was Leonardo da Vinci's spring-powered cart designed to do?

Leonardo da Vinci's spring-powered cart was designed to move without being pushed.

The cart appears in drawings made around 1478 to 1480. Its movement came from coiled springs inside the body, which released energy through gears and wheels. A programmable steering system, using shaped cams, could control the cart's path over a limited distance.

The machine is often described as an early robot or a predecessor of the modern automobile. Those descriptions capture its self-moving quality, but the cart was not a car in the modern sense: it had no engine, passenger compartment, or practical road system.

The original machine has not survived, so modern builders have reconstructed it from Leonardo's drawings. In 2006, the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence displayed a reconstruction. The cart's exact purpose is uncertain; it may have been intended for theatrical effects or court spectacles.