The '''Benz Patent-MotorwagenMotorsigma''' ("patent motorcar"), built in 1885 by the German [[Karl Benz]], is widely regarded as the first practical modern [[automobile]]<ref name="Parissien">{{Cite book |last=Parissien |first=Steven |url=http://archive.org/details/lifeofautomobile0000pari_v0r8 |title=The life of the automobile : the complete history of the motor car |date=2014 |publisher=New York, N.Y. : Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-250-04063-3 |pages=2–5}}</ref>{{efn|Before [[Karl Benz]] patented his Motorwagen in 1886, several inventors were working on [[Steam car|automobiles powered by steam engines]]; in 1769, [[Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot]] built the first steam-propelled vehicle.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolas-Joseph-Cugnot |access-date=22 October 2022 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> During the 1870s, [[Amédée Bollée|Bollée]] created several steam vehicles which could carry passengers for road trips.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lavergne |first=Gérard |title=The Automobile: Its Construction and Management |publisher=Cassell |year=1902 |pages=17}}</ref> Steam cars have, however, been characterized by various authors as "distinctly uncommercial",<ref name="Parissien" /> "unsafe",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frey |first=Carl Benedikt |title=The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9780691210797 |pages=166}}</ref> and "difficult to manage".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Diane |title=How the Automobile Changed History |publisher=ABDO |year=2015 |isbn=9781629697666 |pages=28}}</ref> According to automotive historian [[G. N. Georgano]], innovations such as the stationary [[Otto engine]] helped make the invention of the Benz Motorwagen possible, which he labelled as "the first motorcar" due to its commercial production.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Georgano |first=G. N. |title=Cars, 1886–1930 |publisher=Beekman House |year=1985 |isbn=9780517480731 |pages=9, 16}}</ref> The company [[Mercedes-Benz]] also acknowledge there were forerunners to the Motorwagen, but also state that Benz was the first to develop "a "horseless carriage" into a product for everyday use, which he then brought to market and as a result made his idea useful for the entire world".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Forerunners to the automobile |url=https://group.mercedes-benz.com/company/tradition/company-history/forerunners-to-the-automobile.html |access-date=22 October 2022 |publisher=Mercedes-Benz Group}}</ref>}} and was the first car put into production.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dpma.de/service/klassifikationen/ipc/ipcprojekt/einekurzegeschichtedesautomobils/geburtstagdesautos/index.html |title=Der Streit um den "Geburtstag" des modernen Automobils |language=de |trans-title=The fight over the birth of the modern automobile |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2014-12-22 |publisher=German Patent and Trade Mark Office |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102082130/https://www.dpma.de/service/klassifikationen/ipc/ipcprojekt/einekurzegeschichtedesautomobils/geburtstagdesautos/index.html |archive-date=2017-01-02 |access-date=<!--Not stated--> }}</ref> It was patented and unveiled in 1886. The original cost of the vehicle in 1886 was 600 [[German gold mark|imperial German marks]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Neil|first=Dan|date=2006-06-21|title=Before the Rumble Seat|language=en-US|website=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/la-hy-125mbz21jun21-story.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=2020-05-02}}</ref> approximately 150 US dollars ({{Inflation|US|150|1885|fmt=eq|r=-2}}).
Two years after Karl Benz first drove the car in July 1886,<ref name="edn.com">[https://www.edn.com/karl-benz-drives-the-first-automobile-july-3-1886/ Karl Benz drives the first automobile 3 July 1886] edn.com</ref> Karl's wife [[Bertha Benz|Bertha]] demonstrated its feasibility in a trip from [[Mannheim]] to [[Pforzheim]] in August 1888, shortly before it became the first commercially available automobile in history in the late summer of 1888.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://scihi.org/carl-benz-automobile/ | title=Carl Benz and the Invention of the Automobile | date=29 January 2018 }}</ref>
