AI robot changes your tires and balances them too

The timing could be good for repair shops. Many are struggling to find technicians, while EVs are putting more demand on tire service because they can wear through tires faster. SmartBay is ATI's answer to a service-bay problem that has been building for years.

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"Rather than relying on a technician to manually remove the wheel, dismount the tire, balance it on traditional equipment, and reinstall everything, SmartBay performs the tire change and wheel balance itself with only light-touch oversight from an operator," Chalofsky said.

SmartBay is designed to take on the tough tire work technicians usually do by hand. A worker still keeps an eye on the process, but the robot handles most of the lifting, tire changing and balancing.

Here is the part that may surprise you the most. SmartBay leaves the wheel on the car.

"SmartBay is the first patented system in the world that changes tires without removing the wheel from the vehicle. The car is lifted just as it would be on a conventional lift, but instead of taking off the lug nuts, disturbing the tire pressure monitoring system, and pulling the wheel, SmartBay dismounts the tire directly from the rim while the rim stays on the car," Chalofsky said.

Tire appointments can go sideways fast, especially when a shop is short-staffed or one job takes longer than expected.

"Anyone who has spent time in a tire shop knows how quickly a busy day can fall apart: a technician calls in sick, the first car of the morning takes longer than expected, and the appointments stacked behind it back up the entire schedule," Chalofsky said.

That is the bottleneck SmartBay is designed to ease. ATI says one technician can manage up to three SmartBay-equipped service bays at once. ATI also designed SmartBay to fit inside a standard 12-foot service bay, so shops do not need oversized lanes or major infrastructure changes.

The company says its initial machines are targeting a 45-minute door-to-door tire change for four tires, mounted and balanced. As the technology learns more, that time could be reduced to 30 minutes.

SmartBay has to deal with whatever rolls into the service bay that day. "Every vehicle that comes into a service bay is different," Chalofsky said. "Even within a single model line, those combinations multiply quickly."

Road grime adds another layer of difficulty. Vehicles may arrive covered in mud, snow, road salt, brake dust or rain, and the system still has to identify what it is working on safely.

Chalofsky says SmartBay handles all of this with "a self-learning AI layer that adapts in real time to hundreds of data points per vehicle."

That approach takes the kind of judgment technicians build over years and turns it into a repeatable system that can keep learning over time.

"A single technician can run two or three SmartBays in parallel, processing roughly 24 tires an hour compared to about four tires in 75 minutes today," Chalofsky said.

That could help keep the day from getting backed up when appointments start stacking. For customers, it could mean less time waiting around for updates. Chalofsky says the result can be "more billable volume" and "more predictable scheduling" for high-volume service centers. 

That is a big shift for drivers. EV owners may end up visiting tire shops more often. If shops already struggle with staffing, that extra demand could make the waiting-room problem worse.

He says SmartBay can take over repetitive tire tasks where robotics can work more efficiently. But he also argues that it can make existing workers more valuable.

"In many cases, it allows a shop to take a lower-skilled operator and get three to four times the throughput out of them, which means shops can actually pay those operators more because the work is more valuable," Chalofsky said.

The bigger picture here is that skilled mechanics could spend less time lifting tires and more time on diagnostic or mechanical work that needs their expertise.

"Every wave of automation we've seen in adjacent industries has played out the same way: technology augments the workforce far more than it replaces it, and that's the dynamic we expect here," Chalofsky said. 

Tire work is physical. Heavy wheel assemblies can strain backs, shoulders and knees, especially over a long shift. Chalofsky says SmartBay can help reduce those risks.

"Because SmartBay leaves the rim on the vehicle, technicians are no longer lifting heavy, expensive wheel assemblies on and off mounting machines. This eliminates one of the most common sources of strain injuries and workers' compensation claims in tire work," he said.

He added that the equipment includes sensors designed to help it operate safely around people in a busy service bay. SmartBay also connects deployed systems through a network, allowing one unit to learn from another. 

Most drivers probably will not care how much AI is working behind the scenes. They will care about the part they feel right away: how long the visit takes and how well the car drives afterward.

Chalofsky says consistency will stand out most. "The biggest thing customers would notice is consistency: a faster, more predictable visit, with their car in and out in a defined window rather than depending on which technician happens to be working that day," he said.

He also says Real Force Balance could help deliver a better ride because it balances the full wheel assembly, rather than only the tire. SmartBay's automated visual inspection can also check parts inside the wheel well and flag issues a busy technician might overlook.

For drivers, that could mean a smoother tire visit from start to finish. For shops, it gives them another way to show customers exactly what was checked and why it matters. 

Tires may not sound like the most exciting place to start, but they are one of the most common reasons people visit service centers. They also make a strong case for automation because the work is frequent, physically demanding and hard to staff.

"Tire changes and wheel balancing check nearly every box for a first product. It's one of the most frequent reasons a vehicle comes into a service bay, it's a high-dollar transaction, the work is physically arduous and exactly the kind of task a robotic-first platform is well suited to handle, and the labor shortage is most acute precisely in this part of the workforce," Chalofsky said.

He points to EV growth, retiring technicians and broad demand across dealerships, aftermarket shops and fleets. ATI also has a personal connection to the problem. Chalofsky is a fourth-generation tire industry entrepreneur and previously founded several tire businesses, including SimpleTire. 

That background gives ATI firsthand knowledge of how tire shops actually operate. Rather than chasing a flashy robotics use case, the company is applying tire-industry experience to a long-running bottleneck.

If you own a gas car, hybrid or EV, this kind of technology could make a tire appointment feel like less of a waiting game. A robotic tire system could help shops move cars through faster when appointments start piling up. It could also make balancing more consistent, which may help your car ride more smoothly after service.

EV owners may feel the impact sooner. Heavier electric vehicles can wear through tires faster, and replacement costs can add up quickly. If shops can handle more tire work without longer waits, EV maintenance could become a little less frustrating.

SmartBay could also change the job for technicians. Instead of spending as much time on the most physically demanding tire work, they could shift more toward oversight and higher-skill repairs.

For service centers, the payoff is steadier operations. When one technician can oversee multiple bays, a busy day may be less likely to turn into a long backup. 

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SmartBay is one of those things that makes you wonder why tire service has not changed more by now. Cars have become far more advanced, but many tire shops still rely on the same tough manual process drivers have dealt with for years. ATI is betting that physical AI can help the service bay catch up with the vehicles coming into it. The real test will be what happens on a packed Saturday morning when every bay is full, and customers are watching the clock. Robots can look impressive in a demo. The real question is whether they can hold up in busy service bays and make tire appointments less of a headache for drivers.

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