If you are in Austin and thinking about taking a self-driving Tesla home after grabbing a ginormous frappucchino from Starbucks, try not to spill any of that syrupy coffee milkshake inside the car, or you could get hit with a $150 fine. As noted by Tesla follower Sawyer Merritt, the company has started a new system for billing passengers who dirty the cars, though for now, it only applies to the service in Austin. Just like in a traditional taxi, trashing the interior is going to hurt your wallet.
We can only imagine what passengers have been up to to make Tesla put this cleaning fees, but we can only imagine they though that not having a human driving and silently judging our business in the back seat made people bold… to the point the Tesla service could rebrand itself as RoboPigpen. Which is why Tesla has decided to go the AirBnB route and charge some juicy cleaning fees to discourage the slobby behaviour.
Robotaxi new cleaning fees
There are now two different price levels for cleaning up after a passenger. If someone leaves behind a medium-sized mess—defined as things like dropped food, a good amount of grime, or small spots on the seats—they are looking at an additional $50 charge on their bill.
On the other hand, if a passenger leaves a “serious disaster”—defined as bodily fluids or smoking inside—the penalty jumps up to $150. In a message to Merritt, the company explained that they want to ensure a pleasant space for everyone while encouraging passengers to act responsibly. They noted that when a vehicle needs extra cleaning, they look at how bad the damage is to determine the right fine.
If they decide to charge you, they will send an email explaining that the car needed cleaning after your drop-off. A new receipt showing the cost will also show up in the Ride History area of the app. Finally, if you feel the charge is a mistake, just call Customer Support and select option 7.
Even though Tesla hasn’t put the exact dollar amounts on their official rider rules page yet, they do mention that messing up a car means you will pay an extra charge decided by the company.
Non-supervised taxis are a myth
Is Tesla overcharging with their cleaning fees? Let’s take a look at how Tesla’s cleaning fines stack up against those from other car-sharing and rental companies. Waymo, which is the closest rival to Tesla in the self-driving space, asks for $50 to clean the car if you admit to the mess yourself. If you stay quiet about it, Waymo bills you $100 the first time, and then charges the full cleaning price for any messes after that. Making a habit of trashing the cars can also get your Waymo account flagged. The stiffest penalty Gizmodo came across was from Hertz, which hits you with a $400 fee if you smoke inside their cars—after all, ozone treatments to get rid of the tabacco and vaping odour are expensive.
Even though Tesla markets the robotaxi service as fully self-driving, it actually still relies a lot on human help. In Texas, regulations force Tesla to keep a safety driver inside the car for specific kinds of trips. Also, speaking of cleaning charges, you can bet that a real person—not a robot—is going to be the one scrubbing sick off the backseat.
Does American society measure up to the expectations? Are we really a high-trust society where we behave politely, even when there’s no present human to judge is silently? As Rory Sutherland has explained again and again, the moment an expensive hotel has a doorman, overall general public behaviour in the inmediate vicinity improves: no loiterers, lower crime, no pandering. The human mind is wired to put on our best behaviour when there is a real human being pointing their eyes at you and keeping tabs on you mentally.
Tesla’s Robotaxis are filled with cameras and a remote worker survailling from miles away, but will it be enough?