DELAMARE-DEBOUTTEVILLE - French claim ?

Edouard Delamare-Deboutteville (1856 - 1901) of France  is claimed to have created the first petrol engine driven automobile in 1884 , even before Benz and Daimler.

A 1884 patent document(no 160267) was unearthed in the early 1980's which led to the claim that Delamare-Deboutteville along with his assistant Malandin could have built and operated the automobile in 1884, even though there is no clear evidence for physical build and operation of the automobile.

 
 
 
 
 The French celebrated 100 years of the Automobile in 1984 based on the above document as well as built reconstructed models out of the drawing.
 

Whatever be the claim , the Automobile never looked back after their invention in the mid 1880's

  

CUGNOT - The First "Automobile" ?

The steam car invented and operated by Frenchman Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, for pulling military artillery uphill. Weighing about 2.5 tons it moved at a leisurely 2.5 mph speed. Cugnot's various versions of this monster ran between years 1769 - 1771.

It is also rumoured that the first automobile accident was recorded with this car , when the operator could not control the vehicle and rammed in to a stone wall.

Below is video on the reconstruction of a model and its operation and the CRASH