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Leonardo da Vinci invents the self-propelled cart. This happens many years before anyone else is even thinking about automobiles. However, the cart remains a sketch on paper and is never actually made. This self-propelled cart is not a car like we see today, but is more similar to a wagon, and does not have an actual seat.
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Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot builds the first self-propelled road vehicle in France, a tractor for the French army. It has three wheels and moves at about 2.5 miles per hour.
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American, Oliver Evans, receives the first US patent for a steam-powered land vehicle.
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In Great Britain, inventor Richard Trevithick builds a steam powered road carriage. It is considered to be the first tramway locomotive. It is designed for use on the road, not the railroad.
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An internal combustion engine which uses a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is invented by Francois Isaac de Rivaz in Switzerland. He also designs a car for the engine, the first automobile powered by internal combustion. However, his design turns out to be very unsuccessful.
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English engineer and inventor Samuel Brown invents an internal combustion engine. It has separate combustion and working cylinders, and is used to power a vehicle.
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Robert Anderson invents the first crude electric carriage in Scotland. It is powered by non-rechargeable primary power cells.
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Belgian engineer Jean-Joseph-Etienne Lenoir invents the “horseless carriage.” It uses an internal combustion engine and can move at about 3 miles per hour. This is the first commercially successful internal combustion engine.
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German Nikolaus August Otto improves on the internal combustion engine. His engine is the first to efficiently burn fuel directly in a piston chamber.
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Julius Hock, of Vienna, builds the first internal combustion engine running on gasoline.
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American George Baldwin Selden invents a combined internal combustion engine with a carriage. It is never manufactured.
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Otto builds the four-cycle internal combustion engine, which is the prototype for modern car engines.
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American inventor George Baldwin files the first U.S. Patent for an automobile. This invention is more similar to a wagon with an internal combustion engine.
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German engine designer Karl Benz builds the first true automobile powered by a gasoline engine. It has three wheels and looked similar to a carriage.
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In Michigan, Henry Ford builds his first automobile.
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Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach invent the first four-wheeled, four-stroke engine in Germany. It is known as the “Cannstatt-Daimler.”
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Brothers Frank and Charles Edgar Duryea invent the first successful gas-powered car in the United States.
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The Duryea brothers start the first American car manufacturing company in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is called Motor Wagons.
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A steering wheel is designed to replace the steering tiller.
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Alabama sets a state maximum speed limit of 8 miles per hour.
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Ford’s Model T production rockets from 7.5 cars per hour to 146 cars per hour, thanks to the utilization of the assembly line.
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The car radio is introduced.
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The first four-wheel drive, all-purpose vehicle is designed for the U.S. Military. It becomes known as the Jeep.
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The Interstate Highway Act creates a network of highways which connects all parts of the United States.
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Wisconsin becomes the first state to create a seat belt law. It calls for the seatbelt to be a standard requirement in automobiles.
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Air bags become a new car safety option.
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New York state becomes the first state with a law requiring the use of seatbelts.
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The car Global Positioning System, or GPS, is introduced.
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Due to the rising cost of gasoline and impact of global climate change, zero-emission electric vehicles come back to auto showrooms. The first electric vehicles had been designed in the early 1800s.
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The first Toyota Prius is sold in Japan.
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Many vehicle manufacturers begin to abandon once popular gas-guzzling SUVs for more efficient vehicles due to environmental concerns and the recession.
