By Soumoshree Mukherjee
A new startup, HABIT officially launched with a vision to redefine car detailing through robotics, combining the speed of automatic washes with the precision of human detailers. Founded in 2025 and headquartered in El Segundo, California, HABIT is pioneering “orange detail,” the world’s first robotic car detailing service.
Automatic car washes, while fast, are notorious for damaging paint and offering limited services. Manual detailing, on the other hand, is expensive, averaging $62 per session and up to $1,500 for ceramic coating slow, and often inconsistent. HABIT aims to change that with robotic systems capable of performing high-end detailing services in under 10 minutes.
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Co-founders Michael Trehan and Harish Palani bring a powerful blend of expertise and shared passion for cars to the venture. Trehan, a former investment banker at J.P. Morgan and senior software engineer at Radiant Nuclear, teamed up with Palani, who previously worked as an AI/ML applied scientist at Twitch and Amazon. The two met during their undergraduate years at University of California, Berkeley, and are now focused on deploying HABIT centers across the country.
Americans spend $4.2 billion annually on manual car detailing because existing solutions fall short, that is why they are building robotic systems that deliver premium services like waxing, polishing, and ceramic coating, without the wait or inconsistency.
“As physical AI systems become smarter and more capable, HABIT centers will be the launch point for new robotic services like commercial cleaning,” the founders said in the launch video available on YouTube.
HABIT leverages multimodal sensor fusion, precision robotics, and AI-powered model training to deliver high-throughput, high-quality service. With demand already growing among car wash operators eager to lease orange detail, HABIT’s potential market impact is massive. A single car wash operator in just 21 U.S. states brought in $1 billion last year, illustrating the scale of opportunity.
“We are HABIT. We’re reshaping neighborhood services with robotics,” the company stated.