If you put the history of the orthography in reverse, it looks like someone getting good at drawing.

It's still ideographic but not legible, right?

Just like most software icons are not legible without prior knowledge like arrow down mean to save, a circle with a line mean power on/off, etc. Both are ideographic, and I guess some software icons might be a bit more pictographic (like a cogwheel meaning settings because you are interacting with the machine).

They are of you go far enough back. This is what 车 looked like around 1000 BC: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E8%BB%8A-oracle.svg...