To make a machine or system work by itself without needing a person to control it.
From Greek 'autos' (self) + Latin 'matus' (moved), combined in the 1950s to describe systems that operate independently. The word emerged during the industrial automation era when factories began replacing manual workers with self-operating machines.
The word 'automate' literally means 'self-moving,' which is exactly what Tesla named his company after—Nikola Tesla, the inventor who dreamed of wireless power transmission and self-operating devices over a century before modern automation.
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