The first successful automobile was invented 1770 by a French engineer named Nicolas Joseph Cugnot. It rode on three wheels and was used to move guns from place to place.
In 1801, Richard Trevithick built the first automobile to carry passengers.
It used a steam engine. Coal was fired up to boil water and turn it into steam. Inside the engine there was a piece of metal called a piston. The steam pushed the piston back and forth. The piston turned a metal rod connected to the car's wheels. When the rod moved, the wheels moved-and so did the car.
Most people didn't like the steam driven cars. They filled the air with smoke whenever they went, and hot coals sometimes shot out of the engines! The cars moved slowly-only 10-15 miles an hour- but they were so noisy that they frightened both horses and people. In addition, stagecoach and railroad companies did not like the new automobiles. They were afraid that if many people rode these cars, fewer passengers would ride on their lines. In England, laws limited the use of steam-driven cars. For example, one 1865 law said that a signalman had to walk in front of each car and warn people it was coming!
Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, both German, are considered the fathers of the modern automobile. Working separately, Benz (in 1885) and Daimler (in 1886) developed gasoline engines that worked much like the engines used in cars today. Daimler put his engine in a motorcycle. Benz's engine powered three-wheeled automobiles. The company Karl Benz started is now called Mercedes-Benz.