When Carl Benz filed patent no. 37435 in Berlin on 29 January 1886, no one could imagine how the modern-day motor car would take the world by storm over the coming 125 years. Less than 100 kilometres away, the Swabian inventor and entrepreneur Gottlieb Daimler was successfully working on his motorized carriage at almost exactly the same time as Benz, completing it in that same year. However, both had to wait a few more years before reaping any economic gain from their groundbreaking developments.