Car rental company Hertz recently started implementing an artificial intelligence–driven vehicle scanner program to scan vehicles before and after rentals to check for damage and issue associated charges. The new system has been in operation for a few months in some locations across the U.S., and it’s drawing some criticism. A Hertz customer reached out to our friends at The Drive to share his challenges with the system, which ultimately charged him $440 for a one-inch scuff on the driver’s side rear wheel of the Volkswagen he rented from the Hertz location at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.
Beyond the excessive charge, Hertz offered the renter discounts for rapid payment of the fine, but when he reached out with questions via the chatbot, he found no way to directly contact an agent. He followed a “contact us” link that could take up to 10 days for a response, but the discounts only stood for seven days.
Penalized for asking questions
When Patrick, the renter who reached out to The Drive to share his story, dropped his rental car off at the Atlanta Airport Hertz location, he said he was alerted to the damage just minutes afterward. The app broke down the $440 charge as $250 for repair costs, $125 for processing, and a $65 administrative fee. While the category of “repair costs” is straightforward, the other fees are less transparent. Hertz defines the processing fee as “the cost to detect and estimate the damage that occurred during your rental.” The admin fee “covers a portion of the costs [Hertz incurs] as a result of processing your claim.” The AI technology must come at a high initial cost to Hertz, so does that mean AI-detected damage results in higher processing fees? The company declined to comment when asked by The Drive, and Hertz has no listed prices on its website for estimates of what different kinds of damage typically cost, so transparency comes into question.
Patrick said Hertz offered a $52 discount if he agreed to the terms and paid within two days, or a $32.50 discount if he paid within a week, but Patrick wanted to inquire about the ambiguous nature of his charges. Hertz’s dedicated damage claims chatbot doesn’t currently allow a live human agent to enter the chat– it can only flag a claim so an agent reviews it later, which means the claim is dependent upon an agent eventually reaching out to the customer to discuss the issue. The customer can also call Thrifty’s normal support hotline to talk to a representative, but that option wasn’t made clear to Patrick on the website so he used a “Contact Us” link that connected him to a Thrifty email that can take up to 10 days for a response, which could disqualify him from taking advantage of the discounts.
AI only goes so far
The Atlanta Airport was the first Hertz location to implement these AI scanners, which are supplied by an Israel-based tech company called UVeye. Hertz has faced some tough times recently, including losing $2.9 billion after its push to rent more electric vehicles backfired, so it’s likely that the rental giant is hungry to maximize its profits moving forward. It expects to have UVEye AI scanners like the one at the Atlanta airport up and running at 100 of its roughly 1,600 airport locations by the end of the year.
Patrick told The Drive that he had not paid his fine yet, and is not rushing in order to get a discount because “saving $30 to accept responsibility is not worth it.”
A Hertz representative told The Drive, “The vast majority of rentals are incident-free. When damage does occur, our goal is to enhance the rental experience by bringing greater transparency, precision, and speed to the process. Digital vehicle inspections help deliver on that with clear, detailed documentation that is delivered more quickly, as well as a more technology-enabled resolution process.”
We reached out to Hertz for comment on the lack of clarity in its pricing structure and the company’s goals with implementation of AI, but have not yet received a response at the time of publication. The AI vehicle scanners seem like a reasonable way to speed up the check-in and check-out processes when renting a car, but, especially given that the technology is still new, it would behoove Hertz to do more for its customers in terms of customer service. Regardless of whether you encounter an AI inspection during your rental process, it’s still advisable to perform your own visual inspection prior to receiving or returning a rental car, and document it if you notice preexisting damage.
