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17th and 18th centuries
Steam-powered self-propelled vehicles large enough to transport people and cargo were first devised in the late 18th century. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrated his fardier à vapeur ("steam dray"), an experimental steam-driven artillery tractor, in 1770 and 1771. As his design proved to be impractical, his invention was not developed in his native France. -
17th and 18th centuries (continued)
The center of innovation shifted to Great Britain. By 1784, William Murdoch had built a working model of a steam carriage in Redruth and in 1801 Richard Trevithick was running a full-sized vehicle on the roads in Camborne. The first automobile patent in the United States was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789. -
19th century
One of the first "real" automobiles was produced by Frenchman Amédée Bollée in 1873, who built a self-propelled steam road vehicles to transport groups of passengers.
