Driving

Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a motorized vehicle with wheels, such as a car, motorcycle, truck, or bus by either a human or computer controller.

The origin of the term driver, as recorded from the 15th century, refers to the occupation of driving working animals, especially pack horses or draft horses. The verb ' to drive ' in origin means "to force to move, to impel by physical force". It is first recorded of electric railway drivers in 1889 and of a motor-car driver in 1896. Early alternatives were motorneer,motor-man, motor-driver or motorist. French favors "conducteur" (the English equivalent, "", being used —from the 1830s— not of the driver but of the person in charge of passengers and collecting fares), while German influenced areas adopted Fahrer (used of coach-drivers in the 18th century, but shortened about 1900 from the compound Kraftwagenfahrer), and the verbs führen, lenken, steuern —all with a meaning "steer, guide, navigate"— translating to conduire.

The world's first long distance road trip by automobile took place in Germany in August 1888 when Bertha Benz, the wife of Karl Benz, the inventor of the first patented motor car (the Benz Patent-Motorwagen), travelled from Mannheim to Pforzheim (a distance of 106 km or 66 miles) and back in the third experimental Benz motor car, which had a maximum speed of 10 mph or 16 km/h, with her two teenage sons Richard and Eugen but without the consent and knowledge of her husband. Her official reason was that she wanted to visit her mother, but unofficially she intended to generate publicity for her husband's invention, which had only been taken on short test drives before. The automobile took off greatly afterwards and the Benz's family business eventually evolved into the present day Mercedes-Benz company.

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