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Car rental company Hertz began using AI scanners to check the vehicle after it was damaged. For at least one renter, the technology may have gone too far.
Drive reports that one tenant who returned to Hartz-Field-Jackson Atlanta Atlanta Airtair, part of Hartz Corporation, part of Hertz Corporation, was charged $440 for a 1-inch scuff found on the tire by an AI scanner.
The tenant received a message on the Hertz app within minutes of returning the vehicle, but was unable to tell the human about the fees.
How does Hertz use AI?
In April, Hertz said that by partnering with UVeye, it would “transform the vehicle maintenance process” and would introduce advanced AI testing to its US operations.
In a press release at the time, Hertz stated that by implementing advanced AI-driven inspection technology, “Hertz can dramatically improve the frequency, accuracy and efficiency of the vehicle maintenance process, ensure reliable service, and improve customer vehicle availability and transparency.”
AI-powered camera systems and machine learning algorithms enable real-time automated inspection of vehicles, glass, tires and undercarriage.
Hertz said it will begin rolling out at Atlanta Airport and will expand to major U.S. airports by the end of the year.
What happened to the renter’s $440 bill?
The tenant contacted the drive to relay his experience with a new AI scanner. He was warned of damage to the rear wheels on the driver’s side with an inch of scuff. bill? $250 for repairs, $125 for processing, $65 for management fees, all totaling $440. Renters can either pay immediately or receive a $52 discount if paid within two days or a $32.50 discount if paid within one week.
However, he was unable to go through the chatbot system and knew he could flag the claims to require human agents to review, so he had to reach out through the “Contact Us” link and wait 10 days for a response. He told Adam Ismail of Drive that he has no plans to pay his bill within seven days to receive the discount.
In a follow-up email, Ismail told USA Today it had not heard any updates from the tenants.
In a statement to USA Today, a Hertz spokesman said, “We have shown that over 97% of vehicles scanned with this technology do not show claimable damages, proving that the majority of rentals are safe.
According to a company spokesperson, the goal is to “enhance transparency, accuracy and speed when new damage is detected, while increasing transparency, accuracy and speed, while ensuring that customers are not claimed for not being harmed. As we continue to deploy this technology, we are committed to continuous innovation and continuous improvement.”
When a customer flags an issue in a dedicated chat, the live agent reviews the flagged damage issue and the decision is communicated via the AI agent, the spokesman said. The company is also working to integrate live agents into the app.
“In this particular incident, a live agent reviewed this customer’s escalation and manually reviewed the photos with pickups and returns, confirming that the damage was new,” the spokesman said. “We understand that some customers expect different outcomes, but we want to use the best available information to ensure that all cases are handled fairly and objectively.”
Professor: Hertz’s AI technology parameters may need to be reconfigured
Ramnath Chellappa, professor of information systems and operations management at Goizueta Business School at Emory University, says that there should be benefits to businesses using AI, such as assessing problems. Among Chellappa’s specializations is AI.
But in this case, in Hertz, Chellappa said that it felt very strange and would beat the purpose if it increased the cost of the consumer.
Given that rental companies often have rules of thumb for cases where damage or scratches are deemed important enough to recharge, Chellappa said it appears that they need to adjust the parameters of the AI used by Hertz.
“I don’t think the problem here is technology… I think the problem lies in the policies they are implementing,” Cherappa told USA Today.
“We tend to use technology and condemn all the consequences that are needed,” Cherappa said. “But this is clearly a case of whether the company in question has the right policy in terms of AI outcomes and what it does, not in terms of AI itself.”
Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA Today. Contact her at blinfisher @usatoday.com or follow her on X, Facebook, or Instagram @Blinfisher, @Blinfisher.bsky.social.. Sign up for our free daily money newsletter. This includes Friday’s Consumer News.
