The first working steam-powered vehicle was designed—and quite possibly built—by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65-centimetre (26 in)-long scale-model toy for the Kangxi Emperor that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger.^[10][23][24] It is not known with certainty if Verbiest's model was successfully built or run.^[24]

Cugnot's 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France