Transport & space · 1886

Automobile

Benz's Patent-Motorwagen is the first practical car built around a gasoline engine.

Karl Benz patented his three-wheeled Motorwagen in January 1886. In 1888 Bertha Benz drove it 106 km from Mannheim to Pforzheim, the first long-distance car trip. There are now over 1.4 billion motor vehicles on the world's roads.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Internal combustion engine 1876
Oil drilling 1859

What it led to 4

La Jamais Contente 1899
Ford Model T 1908
Moving assembly line 1913
Driverless taxis in most big cities ~2030

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Private cars in the UK Latest: 22M cars (1998) Source: Our World in Data

US households with a car Latest: 91 % of households (2005) Source: Our World in Data

Fossil fuel consumption Latest: 144k TWh (2025) Source: Our World in Data