Shared-fleet operators feel every flat on their P&L - lost rides, field service, early retirement. That makes them the segment most willing to pay first, and the quickest route to fleet-scale data. It's the wedge, not the destination.

Commercial fleets buy on cost per mile and total cost of ownership, not sticker price. A tire measured in years of service - not months - changes the purchase math and opens long-term supply contracts, not one-off sales.

SMART Tire began at NASA, on wheels built for Mars rovers: robots that have to keep moving where no one can repair them. We launched Austen Robotics because engineering teams building advanced robots, mobility systems and mechanical hardware kept asking us to bring that same shape memory alloy expertise to their components. Austen focuses on joints, flexures, wheels and other structures built to handle repeated movement, loads and impacts, turning specialized engineering projects into repeatable component products.

The same airless structure — from bicycle tire to lunar wheel to this EV concept — displayed at CES 2025 as a proof-of-concept for Hyundai and Kia.