Richard Trevithick builds a steam powered road carriage. It is considered to be the first tramway locomotive.

Robert Anderson invents the first crude electric carriage in Scotland.

George Baldwin files the first U.S. Patent for an automobile.

Karl Benz builds the first true automobile powered by a gasoline engine.

Brothers Frank and Charles Edgar Duryea invent the first successful gas-powered car in the United States.

Henry Ford starts making the Ford Model T, nicknamed Tin Lizzie.

Abram Neiman invents the first anti-theft device, originally composed of 75 small moveable parts, and later called the “butterfly” due to its shape.

Nokian Tyres, a Finnish company, invents the winter tire for transport trucks.

Wisconsin becomes the first state to create a seat belt law.

Safety airbags appear in production cars in the 1974 Buick Cadillac and Oldsmobile, twenty years after the first patents for such an innovation.

The car Global Positioning System, or GPS, is introduced.

The first Toyota Prius is sold in Japan.

New York State becomes the first state with a law requiring the use of seatbelts.

STEAM / Built the first self-propelled road vehicle (military tractor) for the French army: three-wheeled, 2.5 mph.

GASOLINE / Automobile powered by an internal combustion engine: three wheeled, four cycle, engine and chassis form a single unit.

ELECTRIC / Electric carriage.

GASOLINE / First four wheeled, four-stroke engine- known as the “Cannstatt-Daimler.”

The Interstate Highway Act creates a network of highways that connects all parts of the United States.

GASOLINE / First successful gas-powered car: 4hp, two-stroke motor. The Duryea brothers set up first American car manufacturing company.