No, they were around long before that, but they were often hand built, one at a time without an assembly line. France and England had many major auto races going annually by the first decade of the 20th century. Standardization was just starting to take hold. WWI kicked off with trucks and auto ambulances.
On the night of 7–8 September [1914] came the most storied event of the Battle of the Marne. Military Governor Gallieni in Paris reinforced the 6th army guarding Paris by shuttling soldiers to the front by rail, truck, and Renault taxis. Gallieni commandeered about six hundred taxicabs at Les Invalides in central Paris to carry soldiers to the front at Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, fifty kilometres away. Most of the taxis were demobilised on 8 September but some remained longer to carry the wounded and refugees. The taxis, following city regulations, dutifully ran their meters. The French treasury reimbursed the total fare of 70,012 francs.
Wouldn’t 1914 basically be the very first cars?
No, they were around long before that, but they were often hand built, one at a time without an assembly line. France and England had many major auto races going annually by the first decade of the 20th century. Standardization was just starting to take hold. WWI kicked off with trucks and auto ambulances.
Yeah there’s a famous story from WWI about taxis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_the_Marne
I’d never heard this tale. That is gobsmacking incredible. They ran their meters.