--- description: Find out why SMART Tire is one of the best inventions of 2023 title: SMART Tire: The 200 Best Inventions of 2023 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebf1368f1f254d71/698a419847ca386ec43bb418/best-inventions-2023-smart-tire.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 24, 2023 # An Airless Wheel SMART Tire by [Tara Law](/author/tara-law/) ## Tara Law Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  TIME At a 2020 NASA program for entrepreneurs, Earl Cole and Brian Yennie learned about an unusual metal alloy called nitinol, which the agency used to build airless wheels tough enough to roll over the rocky surfaces of the moon or Mars. Intrigued, Cole, now CEO of the SMART Tire Co., and Yennie, its CTO, developed an airless bicycle wheel made from a spiral largely made of nitinol. The tire, set to ship next year, will never go flat, and “actually could last the life of your vehicle,” says Cole, if you replace the cheap rubber tread on the exterior as it wears down. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2023/6324756/smart-tire/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2023/6324756/smart-tire/"},"headline":"An Airless Wheel","datePublished":"2023-10-24T11:00:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:23:08.155Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2023/6324756/smart-tire/","keywords":["list","franchise","ecommerce","Magazine","best inventions","Best Inventions 2023"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebf1368f1f254d71/698a419847ca386ec43bb418/best-inventions-2023-smart-tire.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"creator":"Tara Law","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebf1368f1f254d71/698a419847ca386ec43bb418/best-inventions-2023-smart-tire.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2023/6324756/smart-tire/","name":"An Airless Wheel"}}]}] ```