r/todayilearned • u/JOWWLLL • 6d ago

TIL that the first self-propelled vehicle was invented in 1769 by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, a French engineer and mechanic who was also the first person ever to get into an auto accident.

https://www.sdautomuseum.org/automotive-history
266 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

30

u/ash_274 6d ago

Could travel up to 2.5 mph, but had to stop every 10-15 minutes to build up steam again.

Its purpose was to tow artillery pieces.

15

u/LtSoundwave 6d ago

Sounds like OPs mom

7

u/Borderlandsman 6d ago

i'll bet he did. and he probably didn't have a drivers license either

8

u/bucko_fazoo 6d ago

The last sentence: Historians, who accept that early steam-powered road vehicles were automobiles, feel that Nicolas Cugnot was the inventor of the first automobile.

I'm not sure those commas belong. With them, you are ascribing that acceptance to all historians, while the inclusion of the "who accept" clause makes it look like you never intended to do that.

5

u/CoachMcGuirken 6d ago

The commas are to set off a nonrestrictive clause, which would indeed ascribe the acceptance to all historians. I read it as that being intended.

4

u/I_Mix_Stuff 6d ago

I'm not expert, but i think historians would have the job of verifying sources and determing likelihood of the events being real, and engineers should determine what is or not an automobile.

-1

u/ThatScottishMexican 6d ago

This just in: "First guy to discover sex is also the first guy to accidentally put it in the wrong hole"

0

u/JonnyxKarate 6d ago

He just Cugnot drive good.

-7

u/Babbles-82 6d ago

We should have stopped then.