Southwest Airlines is no longer allowing robot passengers on board — and robot enthusiasts are not happy with the discrimination. In May 2026, Southwest implemented a new policy stating that human-like or animal-like robots are no longer permitted in the cabin, although you can still bring toy robots that fit inside a carry-on bag.

This policy was introduced after two humanoid robots were given their own seats on a flight. The airline stated it’s due to the size of the robots’ lithium-ion batteries, mentioning that the robots could pose a safety risk to other passengers. Southwest has a pretty strict battery policy, even before the additional robot-specific rules, including no lithium batteries allowed in checked bags. Portable chargers are similarly strictly restricted to carry-on baggage. In general, batteries brought on airplanes must be 100 Wh or less, and the Federal Aviation Administration states that there are dozens of fire-related incidents involving lithium batteries, making them a safety hazard.

Southwest’s new policy has outraged robot enthusiasts, who don’t believe the battery is the problem. In April 2026, Elite Event Robotics founder Eily Ben-Abraham bought a seat for his 70-pound humanoid robot, Bebop. The flight crew expressed concern about him having an aisle seat, which violated Southwest’s carry-on items policy. However, after moving to the window seat, the flight was delayed for more than an hour due to concerns about Bebop’s battery, which Southwest flight attendants confiscated.

The Robot Studio founder Aaron Mehdizadeh ran into similar issues on another flight in May with his robot, Stewie, who also had his own plane ticket. However, Stewie was given a smaller battery for the flight to pass security, around the size of a laptop battery. For this reason, the new policy made Mehdizadeh (and Stewie) skeptical that it was related to fear of robots instead. Robots have become <a href="https://www.slashgear.com/2115742/china-unitree-g1-robot-cold-weather-expedition/” target=”_blank”>more advanced and human-like, but this has led many people to feel uncomfortable with their continued immersion in society. “I understand why people have the fear, but if you are aligned towards the future, this could be one of the greatest things that’s ever happened in human history,” Mehdizadeh told FOX 4.