<P> The early history of the automobile was concentrated on the search for a reliable portable power unit to propel the vehicle . </P> <P> Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built a steam - powered vehicle around 1672 as a toy for the Chinese Emperor . It was small scale and could not carry a driver but it was, quite possibly, the first working steam - powered vehicle (' auto - mobile'). </P> <P> Steam - powered self - propelled vehicles large enough to transport people and cargo were first devised in the late 18th century . Nicolas - Joseph Cugnot demonstrated his fardier à vapeur ("steam dray"), an experimental steam - driven artillery tractor, in 1770 and 1771 . As Cugnot's design proved to be impractical, his invention was not developed in his native France . The center of innovation shifted to Great Britain . By 1784, William Murdoch had built a working model of a steam carriage in Redruth and in 1801 Richard Trevithick was running a full - sized vehicle on the roads in Camborne . The first automobile patent in the United States was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789 . </P> <P> During the 19th century attempts were made to introduce practical steam powered vehicles . Innovations such as hand brakes, multi-speed transmissions and better steering developed . Some commercially successful vehicles provided mass transit until a backlash against these large vehicles resulted in the passage of legislation such as the United Kingdom Locomotive Act (1865), which required many self - propelled vehicles on public roads to be preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag and blowing a horn . This effectively halted road auto development in the UK for most of the rest of the 19th century; inventors and engineers shifted their efforts to improvements in railway locomotives . The law was not repealed until 1896, although the need for the red flag was removed in 1878 . </P>

When was the first car invented in america