Putting a motor in a horse-drawn carriage would have been a pretty monumental leap in capability at the time horse-drawn carriages were commonly used.
[0] https://all-andorra.com/fr/automobile-delamare-deboutteville... (In french but a lot of picture)
Now, human fighter pilots are largely obsolete. We've known this was coming for decades, yet we have those AIs flying giant hulking planes that are designed to carry human beings around inside of them.
My point is that this is just as ridiculous as driving a carriage with an empty harness!