Eli5: Why do cars have four wheels instead of three?
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Historically, the first cars were built by carriage builders (horse drawn carriage builders) and 4 wheels were sort of the standard.
3 wheels are reasonably feasible only when the roads are fairly level and good. Otherwise the vehicle is rather unstable. When cars were first invented, roads were pretty badly built as they were primarily used for horse drawn vehicles.
The manufacturing techniques of the time were crude by modern standards. Engines tended to be huge and vehicles were very heavy – things like aluminium and plastic were expensive or not even invented yet. So pretty much everything structural was iron or iron based or sometimes wood. 4 wheels were needed just to have the strength and stability needed to support the vehicle.
As vehicles developed the focus was on speed and comfort. 3 wheeled vehicles are simply not very safe when driven fast.
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