Who invented the first succesfull car?
Lots and lots of people were working on the idea. Patents were many and there was a lot of contention over who created what. Many were working in steam engines. But the internal combustion engine was more practicle for smaller vehicles. But success implies not only technical achievement, but also marketability. One of the European pioneers was Daimler (whose company eventually, in the 1920s, started making the Mercedes Benz; Mercedes was the name of one of the engineers daughters). One of the American Pioneers was Olds. Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler (17 March 1834–6 March 1900) was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist, born in Schorndorf in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development. Daimler and his lifelong partner Wilhelm Maybach were two workaholic inventors whose dream was to create small, high speed engines to be mounted in any kind of locomotion device. They patented in 1885 a precursor of the modern petrol engine whic
