Tesla has begun charging a “cleaning fee” of up to US$150 for passengers of its autonomous taxi service Robotaxi who vomit or smoke in its cars.
The information was shared by Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla influencer, who revealed that fines are already being applied to service users in Austin, Texas (USA), as reported by the website Mashable.
According to him, the fees have two levels. The first is “moderate mess,” which involves an extra charge of US$50 if the vehicle shows “food splatters, significant dirt, and light stains.”
Meanwhile, there is the “severe mess” level, which applies a US$150 fine to the ride for cleaning “human waste or smoke in the vehicle.”
“We prioritize maintaining a clean and comfortable environment for all passengers and promoting responsible behavior by users,” Tesla said in a statement sent to the influencer.
“To handle incidents where vehicles require additional cleaning after a trip, we will assess the type and severity of the mess and apply the appropriate fee. Once the fee is calculated, you will receive an email notifying you that additional cleaning of the vehicle was necessary after your trip.”
“An updated trip receipt will also be available in the Trip History section of the Robotaxi app. If you believe a charge was applied in error, call Customer Support and follow the instructions for option 7,” the company added.
Although Tesla has not yet published the fee details on its Robotaxi Passenger Rules page, it is already stated that dirtying the vehicle will result in an “additional fee” at the “discretion of Tesla.”
This type of fee is not new. According to Gizmodo, Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous taxi service, also applies a US$50 cleaning fee for passengers who report messes during the ride.
If the incident is not reported, Waymo charges US$100 for the first occurrence and increases the cleaning cost for future incidents. The site mentioned that one user even received a US$400 fine for smoking inside a Hertz vehicle.
It is worth noting that, while the vehicle has no driver, it will certainly be a human who cleans up any waste left on the car seats. Therefore, in addition to covering cleaning materials, the fee will likely be used to pay these workers. Moreover, the measure also serves to discourage intentional messes in autonomous vehicles.
Photo: Unsplash. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
