Who was the first to make an automobile?

There's no single definitive answer to who made the "first" automobile, as it depends on how you define "automobile". Different inventors created vehicles with internal combustion engines and self-propulsion at roughly the same time, and the development was incremental.

However, Karl Benz is generally credited with creating the first practical automobile. His Benz Patent-Motorwagen, built in 1886, is widely considered the first production-ready automobile. While others built self-propelled vehicles earlier, Benz's was the first to be truly usable and commercially viable.