Too many people these days don't use or have access to credit cards for services like this. Many people I know only use bank debit cards, or worse, use the debit preloaded cash cards issued by their employers' payroll service provider.

Credit cards motivate banks to help you, because if you won't pay, and the business doesn't pay, the bank has to take the hit.

Debit cards will work as well if your bank values it's reputation - but not all banks do.

And I would not trust a preloaded card provider to assist. You are neither their business partner nor their customer and that puts your interests at the bottom of a very long list. You have to hope some law is on your side or that your issue is so trivial that resolving it is more cost effective then dealing with you.

Sounds like they want to lose those customers.

Holy shit. The contract that dude signed had a maximum fee of $35 for EV recharge, yet they charged him $277 and claimed the contract allowed that. Thankfully, the worst I've had from Hertz is they just told me to fuck off and didn't give me my reserved vehicle.

But sometimes the nicer packaged product is better, it depends on the product.

I don't understand how this works out badly for the person using a debit card. You pay for the vehicle and if they try to make you pay more you ask for proof and if you don't get it you walk away.

Or do they require a collateral fee when renting?

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.

And all those uses are correct, because AI is a broad field. We should just use the more specific terms these days though: machine learning, LLM, Bayesian networks, etc.

I've had from Hertz is they just told me to fuck off and didn't give me my reserved vehicle.

And here I thought they just didn't like me... WTF kind of business is this lol

I don't understand how this works out badly for the person using a debit card. You pay for the vehicle and if they try to make you pay more you ask for proof and if you don't get it you walk away.

Or do they require a collateral fee when renting?

Sometimes is doing a lot of work here though

I'm not sure how you can make the points you make, and still call it a "generally brilliant solution"

Because the technology itself is not the problem, it's the application. Not complicated.

The technology is literally the problem as it’s not working

There's literally nothing wrong with the technology. The problem is the application.

Sounds like that shit with dodgy smoking detection in a hotel from last week..

The technology is NOT DOING WHAT ITS MEANT TO DO - it is IDENTIFYING DAMAGE WHERE THERE IS NONE - the TECHNOLOGY is NOT working as it should

I don't understand how this works out badly for the person using a debit card. You pay for the vehicle and if they try to make you pay more you ask for proof and if you don't get it you walk away.

Or do they require a collateral fee when renting?

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.

Plus they are worshipped as a god in some sectors of the universe.

Agreed. But most people have neither the time nor capacity to track all of these specifics, so popular discussions of AI-related technologies inevitably break down into a mud pit of people talking past each other about various different topics.

Which, if you think about it, is true of most public discussions about any complex topic. It almost invariably devolves into a miscommunication or a discussion about semantics.