Make or find yourself a cart to drag around (g or G to drag it). It it doesn’t have wheels it’ll be quite loud. Sound = attraction = death in most cases.
Don’t bother with cars for a long while, even one that actually runs. They take a lot to maintain and cause a lot of noise (see above). You’re better off starting with a bike for midrange transportation (or if using mods a foldable bike).
When you start building or find a nice base area, make a crafting nook and drop all your items nearby to it. When crafting you can pull ingredients from 1-2 tiles adjacent.
IANAEE. For an on-board application you can create a simple switch with a transistor. https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/transistor/tran_4.html
To make something wireless you’ll probably want to go with a microcontroller or Raspberry Pi and hook up GPIO pins to the motor controls. A transistor wouldn’t be needed in that case as the microcontroller can hold the pin high or low depending on what state you want.