Horseless wagon

So I've been in the market for my first vehicle for a few months now.  Today I saw a beautiful patriot red 1996 F-150 today and I'm going to look at it tomorrow.  This got me thinking about the beginnings of the automobile.  They used to have buggy's drawn by horses and then Henry Ford came up with the Model T.  It makes perfect sense; horses have to be extensively maintained, fed, housed, and eventually like all living things they die.  With an automobile you don't feed it, you don't have to maintain it like you would horses and they will "live" much longer than horses.  Do you think necessity is really the mother of invention? If not what is?