You remember the kids, right? It was one of those Shark Tank moments that felt like a movie script. Six young "kidpreneurs" from New Hampshire, led by a then-19-year-old TJ Evarts, walked into the tank with a steering wheel cover that looked like something out of a sci-fi flick. They called it the SMARTwheel. The pitch was simple: we’re losing too many teens to distracted driving, so let’s build a wheel that yells at them when they take their hands off the 10 and 2 positions.
It was Season 4. Way back in 2013.
Honestly, the energy in the room was electric. These kids weren't just selling a gadget; they were selling a solution to a literal life-or-death problem. The SMARTwheel (which stood for Safe Motorist Alert for Restricting Texting) used gesture-recognition technology to sense hand placement. If a driver let go or tried to text, the wheel would beep and flash red lights. It even sent a report card to the parents' smartphones. Brilliant? Totally. Easy to build? Not even close.
The Deal That Wasn't Really a Deal
When you watch Shark Tank, the handshake feels like the finish line. In reality, it’s just the start of a very long, very messy due diligence process.
The Inventioneers, as the group was called, originally asked for $100,000 for 15% of the company. They had some heavy hitters in their corner already—Barack Obama had personally demoed the tech at the White House, and MIT had run pilot tests. Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec were intrigued enough to team up. They offered $100,000 for 30% of the equity, but there was a massive catch. The deal was contingent on the team securing a licensing agreement with a major auto manufacturer.
That’s where things started to get sticky.
The deal never actually closed. If you look at the track record of high-tech hardware on the show, this is a recurring theme. Startups get the "TV deal," but when the Sharks' accountants look at the manufacturing hurdles or the lack of patents, the checkbooks stay closed. For SMARTwheel, the hurdle was the transition from a cool prototype to a mass-producible consumer product.
Why the SMARTwheel Never Hit Your Local AutoZone
After the cameras stopped rolling, TJ Evarts and his team didn't just give up. They went the crowdfunding route. In 2015, they launched an Indiegogo campaign to get the product into the hands of the public.
It was a bit of a disaster.
They set a goal of $50,000 but only managed to scrape together about $2,000. That is a brutal signal from the market. While people loved the idea of safe driving, they weren't necessarily ready to shell out $200 for a steering wheel cover that buzzed at them.
The Tech Gap
By 2016, the team showed up at CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) with a sleek new design. It looked better, it was thinner, and the haptic feedback was improved. But the world was changing fast. Car manufacturers like Tesla and Volvo were already integrating "hands-on-wheel" sensors directly into their steering systems for semi-autonomous driving features.
The SMARTwheel was essentially trying to be an aftermarket fix for a problem that the car companies were already solving at the factory level.
Where Is SMARTwheel in 2026?
If you're looking to buy one today, you’re out of luck. The company has gone quiet. The official website has been inactive for several years, and the social media accounts haven't posted since the late 2010s.
TJ Evarts, however, remains a bit of a legend in the "young inventor" circuit. He proved that a teenager could take an idea from a New Hampshire basement all the way to the White House and a national TV stage. Even if the product didn't become a household name, the technology behind it—linear potentiometers and proprietary algorithms for gesture recognition—was ahead of its time for 2013.
It’s easy to look at SMARTwheel as a "fail," but that’s not quite fair. Most startups die in silence. This one lived out loud, influenced the conversation about distracted driving, and showed the Sharks that Gen Z was coming for their jobs.
Don't Confuse It With the Shark Wheel
Here is a weird bit of trivia that trips people up: there is another "wheel" company from Shark Tank that is doing incredibly well, but it has nothing to do with steering.
Shark Wheel, pitched by David Patrick and Zack Fleishman, makes those "sine wave" wheels for skateboards and luggage. Because they share the word "Shark" and "Wheel," people often assume the distracted driving cover evolved into a skateboard company.
Nope. Different founders, different tech, different outcome. The Shark Wheel (the wavy one) actually scaled into a multi-million dollar business with applications in agriculture and industrial casters. The SMARTwheel (the steering cover) is currently a piece of tech history.
What You Can Learn From the SMARTwheel Story
If you're an entrepreneur or just a fan of the show, there are a few blunt truths to take away from the TJ Evarts saga.
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- Licensing is a trap: When a Shark says "I'll give you the money IF you get a licensing deal," they are basically saying "I don't think you can sell this yourself."
- The "Obama Bump" isn't a Business Model: Fame and endorsements are great for PR, but if the manufacturing costs don't align with what parents are willing to pay, the business won't scale.
- Timing is everything: Being five years too early is often just as bad as being five years too late.
If you are a parent worried about a teen driver today, the "actionable" legacy of the SMARTwheel isn't a physical product you can buy. It's the apps and built-in "Do Not Disturb While Driving" features on iPhones and Androids. The hardware might have vanished, but the mission to stop distracted driving became standard software.
Check your teen's phone settings. That’s the real-world version of the SMARTwheel that actually stuck.
Next Steps for Safety
If you want to replicate the goal of the SMARTwheel without the defunct hardware:
- Enable "Driving Focus" on iOS: Go to Settings > Focus > Driving to automate text silencing.
- Use Life360: Many families use this app to monitor driving speed and phone usage patterns.
- Invest in a high-quality phone mount: Distracted driving often starts when a phone slides off the passenger seat and a driver reaches for it. A $20 mount does half the job the SMARTwheel was trying to do.