ABSTRACT
The first automobile in the world was made by N.J.Cugnot (1725-1804), a Frenchman, some 200 years ago in 1769. This three-wheel steam-engined vehicle, however, ran into a brick wall at a speed of 3.5 kilometers per hour and broke down. As compared with current passenger cars, it was indeed a primitive vehicle. Yet it was undoubtedly an automobile in that it was an engine-loaded wheeled vehicle which could turn into a mobile criminal weapon as soon as it had been driven in the wrong way. In fact, the main features of this primitive vehicle fit what the Japanese Road Traffic Law defines as “cars with prime movers, except prime-mover attached bicycles, which can be driven without the railway or cableway.” This might lead one to wonder if there had been any substantial technical progress in automobiles during the past two centuries.
