What does a robotaxi depot cost per vehicle per day?
About $15.63 to $18.09 a day for one car’s stall, on DockDuty’s published Priority card, plus a service fee of 13 to 15% of ride revenue. The Priority retainer is $475 to $550 per stall per month, and we divided it by 30.4, the average number of days in a month (365 divided by 12). That retainer includes the stall, the charging electricity with no markup on energy, cleaning between rides, staging and 24-hour incident response. It is the rate for owners onboarded at an operating DockDuty depot, and no DockDuty depot is open yet: Orlando is our lead market, with its depot targeted for Q4 2026 or Q1 2027. We found no robotaxi operator that publishes a per-vehicle daily depot price, so the rest of this page breaks a depot day into its parts and puts a public number next to each part where one exists.
DockDuty’s Priority card as a daily figure
The published card is monthly and per stall. Here is every tier divided by 30.4 days, checked against the pricing page on November 9, 2026:
| Fleet size | Retainer per stall per month | Per stall per day (30.4 days) | Service fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 cabs | $550 | About $18.09 | 15% of ride revenue |
| 3 to 4 cabs | $525 | About $17.27 | 15% of ride revenue |
| 5 to 6 cabs | $500 | About $16.45 | 14% of ride revenue |
| 7 or more cabs | $475 | About $15.63 | 13% of ride revenue |
Divide by 30 instead and the range is about $15.83 to $18.33 a day, which is why you may see “about $16 to $18” elsewhere on this site. The service fee is a percentage, so it has no fixed daily figure: it is $13 to $15 of every $100 the car earns in rides, and nothing on a day the car earns nothing. Two one-time amounts sit outside the daily figure: a $450 reservation deposit per stall, refundable at your request any time before onboarding, which is credited in full against the one-time $1,000 onboarding fee, leaving a $550 balance due at intake.
To turn this into a month with your own ride and fare assumptions, use the Cybercab earnings calculator. It labels every output a projection.
What one car’s depot day includes, line by line
A depot day for a robotaxi is the same short list of jobs every day. This table shows where each one sits on the Priority card and whether anyone publishes a public price for buying it on its own. Checked November 9, 2026.
| Cost line | On DockDuty’s Priority card | Public number for this line on its own |
|---|---|---|
| Parking: an assigned stall | Included in the retainer. Off the public curb, at a depot with controlled access. | Not published. We found no robotaxi operator that lists a parking-only daily rate. |
| DC charging energy | Included in the retainer, with no markup on energy. | Electricity is the one line with solid public data: the U.S. average commercial price was 14.47 cents per kWh in August 2026 (EIA), so every 10 kWh costs about $1.45. By state, see the next table. Tesla has not published a Cybercab energy use figure, so we do not state kWh per day. |
| Getting the car charged | Included. | Not published. |
| Cleaning between rides | Included: interior, exterior, lost property and damage checks. | Not published as a per-vehicle daily cost by any robotaxi operator we found. Per-job cleaning prices from one service app are in our depot explainer’s per-day table. |
| Staging | Included: putting the car where demand is expected rather than where the last ride ended. | Not published. |
| Dispatch coordination and incident response | Included, 24 hours a day. | Not published. |
| Service fee | 13 to 15% of ride revenue, by fleet size. | Does not apply on its own. |
| Not in any of the above | The car, your commercial insurance, parts, repairs, tires and body work, registration and taxes, and whatever share of fares a ride network keeps. | See robotaxi maintenance costs and Cybercab insurance cost. |
The charging line by state
Electricity is the cost line that moves most from state to state. These are the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s average commercial prices for August 2026, the latest month in its Electric Power Monthly as of November 9, 2026. The last column is plain arithmetic: what 10 kWh costs at that price.
| State | Commercial price, August 2026 | Cost of 10 kWh |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | 11.35 cents per kWh | About $1.14 |
| Texas | 8.96 cents per kWh | About $0.90 |
| California | 30.02 cents per kWh | About $3.00 |
| Arizona | 13.05 cents per kWh | About $1.31 |
| Georgia | 13.81 cents per kWh | About $1.38 |
| Nevada | 9.80 cents per kWh | About $0.98 |
| U.S. average | 14.47 cents per kWh | About $1.45 |
A depot pays its own utility tariff, which can include demand charges, so its real cost per kWh will differ from a statewide average. On the Priority card, that cost sits inside the retainer. The retainer can carry an energy adjustment at cost, set each January 1 and July 1, up or down, capped by both the depot’s own electricity bills and the published state electricity price, and never in a depot’s first 12 months. The full terms are on the pricing page. For why the Cybercab needs DC charging at all, see why the Cybercab can’t use a home Wall Connector.
Building a depot is a different number
Searches for depot cost mix two things. This page is the running cost of one car’s day, which is what an owner pays. What it costs a company to build the site, with chargers, transformers and land, is in how much it costs to build a robotaxi depot. For the same Priority rates set against paying for parking and cleaning separately, see the per-day table in our depot explainer, and for a whole month compared with a per-job app, see flat fee vs revenue share.
Robotaxi depot cost per day: FAQ
How much does a robotaxi depot cost per vehicle per day?
On DockDuty’s published Priority card, about $15.63 to $18.09 a day per stall: $475 to $550 a month divided by 30.4 days, plus a service fee of 13 to 15% of ride revenue. That is the rate for owners onboarded at an operating DockDuty depot, and no DockDuty depot is open yet. We found no other robotaxi operator that publishes a per-vehicle daily price.
Does the daily rate include parking and cleaning?
Yes. The Priority retainer includes an assigned stall, charging electricity with no markup on energy, cleaning between rides, staging, dispatch coordination and 24-hour incident response. Parts, repairs, tires, insurance and the car itself are not included.
Is charging electricity extra?
No. On the Priority card, charging electricity is included in the monthly retainer with no markup on energy. The retainer can carry an energy adjustment at cost, set each January 1 and July 1, never in a depot’s first 12 months.
What does electricity cost per kWh for a robotaxi depot?
It depends on the state and the depot’s own tariff. EIA’s average commercial price for August 2026 was 14.47 cents per kWh nationally, 11.35 cents in Florida, 8.96 cents in Texas and 30.02 cents in California.
Is there a deposit?
Yes. A $450 reservation deposit per stall, refundable at your request any time before onboarding, and credited in full against the one-time $1,000 onboarding fee.
Is a DockDuty depot open now?
Not yet. Orlando is our lead market, with its depot targeted for Q4 2026 or Q1 2027, and we are planning locations in more metros. Stall reservations are open now and attach to the DockDuty network, not to one city.
About DockDuty. We are building depots and fleet software for privately owned autonomous vehicles. No DockDuty depot is open yet. If you want a stall when one opens, reserve one for a $450 refundable deposit, or see every fee on the pricing page first.
Sources.
- DockDuty pricing, checked November 9, 2026: Priority rate card, what the retainer covers and does not cover, deposit, onboarding fee and energy adjustment terms.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, August 2026 data released October 23, 2026, read November 9, 2026: average commercial electricity price by state.