Doing Jorok in Tesla Autonomous Taxi Can Be Fined Rp2 Million

Tesla Robotaxi. (Photo: Tesla)

JAKARTA - Tesla's ambition to build a driverless (autonomous) taxi service comes with strict rules. Elon Musk's company has officially implemented a two-tier cleaning fee policy for robotaxi services, with the highest rate reaching 150 US dollars, or around Rp. 2.5 million for passengers who leave biological waste in the car.

The information was revealed by influencer Sawyer Merritt, in Tesla's new policy divides the cost of additional cleaning into two levels. The low-level fee of around 50 US dollars, or Rp835 thousand is charged for conditions such as food spills, heavy dirt, or small stains that cannot be cleaned with a quick suction.

While the highest level is 150 US dollars, the fine is for serious dirt such as vomit, blood, other body fluids, to evidence of smoking that requires deep cleaning and special ventilation. As reported by Autoblog, Wednesday, December 31.

If a vehicle is marked dirty after a trip, Tesla will conduct an inspection. If it is deemed to require extra maintenance, the cost of automatic cleaning is added to the passenger's trip structure.

The details of the cost will appear in the application's travel history, with a special note on the cleaning cost. Objections to this billing are handled by Tesla's support team, not through an instant complaint button in the application.

This scheme is actually not new, for example Uber has long implemented a similar structure with a maximum limit of around US$150 for severe incidents involving bodily fluids. The difference is, on Tesla's driverless fleet, the company owns and maintains the vehicles, not individual drivers.

The policy comes as Tesla's ambitions in the robotaxi sector increase. The company is testing an autonomous variant of the Model S and claims that more than 1,000 robotaxis are already operating in a trial service.

However, for now, these vehicles are still under the supervision of human drivers. Tesla also gave an overview of the future through a production-ready Cybercab prototype.