Southwest Airlines quickly updated its passenger policy following a viral incident that saw a humanoid robot, complete with boarding pass, fly from Dallas, Texas, to Las Vegas. Aaron Mehdizadeh, founder of Dallas’ The Robot Studio, boarded with his 3.5-foot robot Stewie, earning the pair a number of surprised looks from passengers and flight crew.
While the flight occurred without issue, Southwest has since banned any “human-like or animal-like robots” from checked baggage or aboard the airplane cabin, “regardless of purpose or size.”
Southwest told People that the ban is due to “the size of lithium-ion batteries used to power [robots] and the risk they pose during flight.” Mehdizadeh disagrees, claiming that the battery he used for Stewie’s flight meets flight regulations.
“It’s not a battery policy because the battery we used is essentially a laptop battery,” Mehdizadeh commented to CBS News Texas.
