Hertz' AI System That Scans for "Damage" on Rental Cars Is Turning Into an Epic Disaster
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It's on brand. I pity the fool that doesn't know hertz is a fucked up rental agency
They're all rather shitty tbh, with some regional variation
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Isn't this the same company that called the police on legitimate customers after they messed up the paperwork?
And the company that charges "gas refueling fees" for a fully charged EV.
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Companies have been fucking consumers since the beginning of time and consumers, time and time again, bend over and ask for more. Just look at all of the most successful companies in the world and ask yourself, are they constantly trying to deliver the most amazing service possible for their customers or are they trying to find new ways to fuck them at every available opportunity?
I feel like the go to strategy would be to offer incredible service at first, then once you are big enough to force out competitors and the like, then you start fucking the consumer
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I'd ask for the stupid AI scanning system to scan my car before I agree to renting it. Once they sign off on the 'all clear' notification from their AI scanner before rental, then I'd consider renting it .... but after reading this headline, I'd probably just tell them, I'm spending a few hundred dollars more on renting a car from someone else.
Just spit balling here, but they probably tune the AI for different thresholds between return and rent out so that they can rake in the damage fees for things that "weren't there" during the first AI scan.
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You should also ask for a copy of the pictures or videos it takes while scanning so you can reference when returning.
And they will totally provide those to you, no problem.
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I think it's generally a brilliant solution but there are a couple of problems here:
- The scanner seems to flag fucking everything and charge for minor damage where a human would probably flag it as wear.
- No one is allowed to correct the scanner:
Perturbed by the apparent mistake, the user tried to speak to employees and managers at the Hertz counter, but none were able to help, and all "pointed fingers at the 'AI scanner.'" They were told to contact customer support — but even that proved futile after representatives claimed they "can’t do anything."
Sounds to me like they're just trying to replace those employees. That's why they won't let them interfere.
I'm not sure how you can make the points you make, and still call it a "generally brilliant solution"
The entire point of this system - like anything a giant company like Hertz does - is not to be fair to the customer. The point is to screw the customer over to make money.
Not allowing human employees to challenge the incorrect AI decision is very intentional, because it defers your complaint to a later time when you have to phone customer support.
This means you no longer have the persuasion power of being there in person at the time of the assessment, with the car still there too, and means you have to muster the time and effort to call customer services - which they are hoping you won't bother doing. Even if you do call, CS hold all the cards at that point and can easily swerve you over the phone.
It's all part of the business strategy.
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Okay so...in the rare event I need to rent a car, any suggestions on who to use that isn't Hertz and sister companies?
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But they know their competitions are doing to adopt the same type of tech, so where are those customers going to go when they have no choice?
I use an app called GoMore in some places in Europe that allows you to rent cars from other peers. The rental process is cheaper and faster--everything is done through the app--and you avoid these shady corpo practices.
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I am 0% surprised that Hertz would be the first in the US to roll this out. Expecting a Steve Lehto YouTube video about it within the next three days ...
He's already done 3 that I know of
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I feel like the go to strategy would be to offer incredible service at first, then once you are big enough to force out competitors and the like, then you start fucking the consumer
The word used for that strategy is usually "enshittification". It happens a lot after digital tech is introduced in a new sector.
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I will bring this up again like I did my last post concerning Hertz.
While I was in Albuquerque, NM getting off the Amtrak train, I reserved our rental car from their website and went to the nonexistent address with no phone number or anything. After half an hour we called another Hertz and they basically told us to piss off and call the location we booked the car. I have few brands that I boycott and now they will be Nestle products (and sub companies) and Hertz.
Nestle products (and sub companies)
That's a tall order. And just to be clear, not saying we should just give up against those numbers. It's not an all-or-nothing situation.
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The term AI itself is a shifting of goalposts. What was AI 50 years ago* is now AGI, so we can call this shit AI though it's nothing of the sort. And everybody's falling for the hype: governments, militaries, police forces, care providers, hospitals... not to speak of the insane amounts of energy & resources this wastes, and other highly problematic, erm, problems. What a fucking disaster.
If it wasn't for those huge caveats I'd be all for it. Use it for what it can do (which isn't all that much), research it. But don't fall for the shit some tech bro envisions for us.
* tbf fucking around with that term probably isn't a new thing either, and science itself is divided on how to define it.
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Okay so...in the rare event I need to rent a car, any suggestions on who to use that isn't Hertz and sister companies?
SIXT and TURO. Maybe price out renting the big truck from Lowe's/home depot. Or a haul. Both might be cheaper than hertz/enterprise depending on your area.
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SIXT and TURO. Maybe price out renting the big truck from Lowe's/home depot. Or a haul. Both might be cheaper than hertz/enterprise depending on your area.
Sixt is specifically called out as AI lying about damages in Germany.
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Okay so...in the rare event I need to rent a car, any suggestions on who to use that isn't Hertz and sister companies?
I've had a lot of good recent experiences with Enterprise (in the US). There's some interesting services like Turo, but I can't bring myself to try it yet. Weirdly too personal being other people's cars.
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The word used for that strategy is usually "enshittification". It happens a lot after digital tech is introduced in a new sector.
Not many people today remember when Google was actually useful. Once upon a time.
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Nestle products (and sub companies)
That's a tall order. And just to be clear, not saying we should just give up against those numbers. It's not an all-or-nothing situation.
Just buy store brands and you're 80% of the way there.
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Just buy store brands and you're 80% of the way there.
Yea, it's usually the nicer packaged, higher priced products that make dumb consumers feel like they're buying something better.
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Not many people today remember when Google was actually useful. Once upon a time.
From "don't be evil" to "be as evil as possible"
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Just buy store brands and you're 80% of the way there.
very often, the storebrand is usually a namebrand product with a different wrapper.
