17th And 18th Century
Ferdinand Verbiest, a guy from China built a steam powered vehicle around 1672 as a toy for his Emperor. It was small scale and couldn't carry a driver but it was quite possibly. It was the first steam power vehicle. In the late 18th century large enough steam power vehicles were invented and these vehicles could transport people and cargo. By 1784 William Murdoch had built a working model of steam carriage in Redruth and in 1801 Richard Trevithick was running a full sized vehicle on the roads in Camborne. In 1789 Oliver Evans received the first automobile patent in the United States.