Benz was motivated by a desire to create a self-propelled vehicle that could be used for practical transportation. He was not the only person working on this idea at the time, but he was the first to successfully build and demonstrate a practical automobile.
Some other notable early automobiles were:
- The Lenoir car (1862), which was powered by a gas engine.
- The Bollée car (1873), which was powered by a steam engine.
- The Daimler car (1885), which was powered by a gasoline engine.
These early automobiles were not very reliable or practical, but they paved the way for the development of the modern automobile.