Hertz is in the news again because of the AI-powered scanners
the rental car company now uses to find damage on cars after they're returned in order to charged customers for that alleged damage. Of course, you can't forget about the processing and administrative fees, either. After all, why shouldn't a $250 charge actually cost you $440? The bad news is, it doesn't sound like Hertz plans to stop with this AI nonsense.Now, if you screw up and actually damage a rental car, that's one thing. You or
your insurance should expect to pay for that. But that also doesn't sound like what happened to Kelly Rogers when she and her husband rented a minivan in Atlanta recently. As the New York Times explains:
When they returned the car in Atlanta, they inspected it and saw no damage. A Hertz employee inspected the vehicle upon its return as well, they said, and did not flag any damage.But once the couple had passed through airport security, they received a notification via the Hertz app that its automated system had detected a dent in the passenger-side front door. They were charged $195: $80 for the damage and $115 in fees, including those incurred "as a result of processing" the damage claim and the "cost to detect and estimate the damage" that occurred during the rental. Hertz offered to reduce the charge to $130 if they paid within one day.
That's a lot of money for "damage" an employee had already said they didn't see, but at least they were offered a discount if they paid quickly. A Hertz spokesperson also told the Times the company had reviewed the incident and confirmed the dent was new. Rogers, however, reportedly still finds it difficult to believe, telling the newspaper, "It could have been a shadow. We were pulling it up on the app, and we're like, 'This is so bananas.'"
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Maybe Rogers or her husband really did return the minivan with an imperceptibly small ding in it. Maybe they didn't. But it still sucks to be told there's no damage, only to get charged for damage some computer program allegedly found after the fact. Especially since we know AI is wildly unreliable and regularly gets even the most basic stuff wrong. Just look at what happened to the MyPillow guy's lawyers when they used AI to do their jobs for them. And that's far from the only story about faulty AI software getting people in trouble. Heck, if you ask Google, its AI thinks my name "appears to be a typo."
Hertz isn't the only rental car company toying with the most annoying new technology. Sixt uses an AI software called Car Gate, the Times reports. Avis has also been toying with AI since 2019, but told the Times the process remains "human-led."
Hertz has had a rough few years in the customer satisfaction department. It almost had a customer arrested for putting too many miles on an "unlimited mileage" rental. It's also the same Hertz that had customers wrongly arrested on charges of stealing rental cars they didn't actually steal. Then, after getting a new CEO, Hertz got sued again for having customers wrongly arrested. Eventually, Hertz agreed to a $168 million settlement over those wrongful arrests.
I've reached out to Hertz for a comment, but I have yet to hear back from them. I'll be sure to update this post with their statement.
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