#First_Self_Propelled_Automobile
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot was a french inventor who built the first self-propelled mechanical land vehicle or automobile in 1769.
#Fardier_à_vapeur (steam dray)
a three-wheeled machine with a top speed of around 3 km/h (2 mph) originally designed for hauling artillery.
Cugnot’s vehicle was a huge, heavy, steam-powered tricycle, and his model of 1769 was said to have run for 20 minutes at 2.25 miles (3.6 km per hour) while carrying four people and to have recuperated sufficient steam power to move again after standing for 20 minutes.
This was a heavy vehicle that was extremely slow-moving. In addition to its slow gait, the vehicle was forced to stop every fifteen minutes to build up steam.
The vehicle was reported to have been very unstable owing to poor weight distribution, a serious disadvantage for a vehicle intended to be able to traverse rough terrain and climb steep hills. In addition, boiler performance was also particularly poor, even by the standards of the day.
Afterwards Cugnot's vehicles were followed by other advances in steam car technology. In 1784 William Murdoch developed a steam carriage. In 1789 Oliver Evans received the first U.S. patent for a steam-powered vehicle.
