Father Ferdinand Verbiest (born October 9th, 1623 – died January 28th, 1688) was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was an accomplished mathematician, astronomer and is said to be the first to invent what we call today an "automobile".

During the 1670s, Verbiest designed what some claim to be the first ever self-propelled vehicle – many claim this as the world's first automobile, in spite of its small size and the lack of evidence that it was actually built.