At Spin, identifying a way to reduce the lifetime cost of tires was a good example of my innovative thinking as leader of R&D.  I wanted to find something with the comfort of pneumatic tires, but with a lower lifetime cost, similar to that of solid tires. 

Currently most vehicles, including shared scooters, use pneumatic tires which provide a comfortable ride because they absorb road vibrations well. However, their maintenance costs are high because they are susceptible to flats and sustain significant wear and tear.  This problem is amplified for shared scooters that are out in public.  There is interest in the industry in moving to solid rubber tires which have lower maintenance costs, but they are less comfortable, transferring road vibrations and bumps directly to the frame and the rider. 

I wanted to explore options outside of these two go-to options. I found several suppliers of alternate tire types to evaluate, including setting up a partnership with the SMART Tire Company.  They are developing tires using super-elastic metal alloys developed by NASA.  Ultimately there were 4 different alternative tire technologies from 6 different companies that I evaluated.  Some of them were on the market already while others, like SMART Tire, were longer term collaborative projects.   

Evaluating safety, comfort, cost and other factors was a significant challenge.  Doing so required a comprehensive understanding of the company’s needs and those of our users.  I had to balance all the different parameters in order to choose a tire for our next generation scooter.