What was Leonardo da Vinci’s wheeled, clockwork-powered vehicle designed to do?

Leonardo da Vinci’s wheeled, clockwork-powered vehicle was designed to move autonomously.

Leonardo drew the machine in the Codex Atlanticus, probably around 1478 to 1480. It used coiled springs to store energy and gearing to transmit that energy to wheels. Its front wheels could be programmed through the arrangement of the mechanism, allowing the vehicle to follow a predetermined path.

The machine is often called Leonardo’s self-propelled cart. It was not an automobile in the modern sense: it had no engine, steering wheel, brakes, or passenger cabin. It was a mechanical automaton intended to produce controlled movement.

A 2006 reconstruction at the Museo Galileo in Florence demonstrated how the mechanism could work. The surviving drawing is incomplete, so modern reconstructions necessarily include interpretation. That uncertainty does not change the basic purpose of the design: autonomous wheeled motion powered by stored mechanical energy.