Douglas Auto

Before road trips were a thing, there was Bertha Benz - the world’s first long-distance driver. In 1888, she secretly took her husband’s invention - the Benz Patent-Motorwagen - on a 66-mile journey across Germany.

She left Karl a note (he was still asleep), grabbed their teenage sons, and pushed the three-wheeled car down the road to avoid waking him up. The mission? Visit her mother…and prove to the public (and Karl) that the automobile was ready for the real world.

Along the way, she cleared a clogged fuel line with a hairpin, insulated a wire with her garter, and even convinced a cobbler to add leather to the worn-out brakes. When she got home, she gave Karl a list of improvement ideas, including better brakes and a gear for climbing hills.

🚘Bertha didn't just drive into history. She changed it.