Throughout history, people have always needed ways to travel and move their stuff from one place to another. Before cars were invented, folks used things like hand carts, bullock carts pulled by animals, and horse-drawn carriages.
The very first car was made by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot back in 1769. It ran on steam power, but it had issues with getting enough water and keeping the steam pressure right.
Then, in 1879, Karl Benz came up with the first modern car. He figured out how to use an internal combustion engine to make it go. But back then, these cars didn’t have steering wheels! Benz’s wife, Martha Benz, suggested adding one later on.
Around the same time, in 1877, George Selden made the first American car with a gasoline engine. But it was Henry Ford who really changed things. He set up big assembly lines to make cars quickly and cheaply. His most famous car, the Model T, was the first to be made this way. It had interchangeable parts, which made fixing it easier. Ford’s innovations meant that cars could be made faster and sold for less money, showing how making lots of something at once can save money in the long run
