Prehistoric period had to travel everywhere carrying their goods or dragging them on sledges. By 3,000 BC, people had developed wheeled vehicles pulled by animals. It was only in the late 1800s that the invention of steam engine and petrol engine changed land travel. The maiden land vehicle that was self-propelled with an engine was made in 1769 by a Frenchman, Nicholas Cognit. It was a cumbersome three-wheeled cart with a steam engine and a massive boiler. The first vehicle to be powered by a petrol engine was built by a German engineer, Karl Benz in 1885. The first petrol-powered car was invented in 1886 by another German, Gottlieb Daimler. In the United States, two brothers Frank and Charles Duryea made the first successful American petrol automobile in 1892
