this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
64 points (100.0% liked)

Tech

1526 readers
26 users here now

A community for high quality news and discussion around technological advancements and changes

Things that fit:

Things that don't fit

Community Wiki

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
64
New AI tool picks up every scratch on your car rental – and its freaking people out (www.independent.co.uk)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
7 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
  • Car hire companies are deploying new AI-powered scanning systems to detect even minor vehicle damage, sparking customer outrage over unexpected charges.
  • Hertz, a prominent car rental firm, is using UVeye's automated technology at several US airports, which compares high-resolution images taken at pickup and return to identify new damage.
  • Customers report receiving substantial bills for tiny imperfections, such as small dents or scuffs, often just minutes after returning their vehicles.
  • Specific cases include Kelly Rogers being charged for a 'dent' she thought was a shadow, and another customer facing a $440 bill for a one-inch scuff.
  • Despite customer complaints and plans to expand the system to over 100 US airports, Hertz maintains the technology ensures customers are not charged for pre-existing damage.
top 7 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah. I don't trust the tech or the company.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 hours ago

not charged for pre-existing damage

Tech seems fine. I just won't expect that statement to be true.

The only way the customer has, to know if the damage was pre-existing, is to have their own machine to check it while receiving it, because for a company charging that high for a small amount of damage, I won't expect them to actually try being fair with properly checking for pre-existing damage on checkout.

Then considering how the amount is significantly greater than what it would take to fix it, the employees might as well be adding minor amounts of damage themselves before scanning it.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago

Hertz, the worst company that lives to scam customers. I'll never rent from them

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago

They should have to run the car through the same scanner when renting it out and pay the customer for any damage that the second scan is not picking up.

Reading the article, it seems that no one is contesting that the damage is not real (and Hertz said that they have employees verify that the damage if the customer questions it). Hertz does not have any evidence that the damage (not noticeable to the naked eye) did not occur while the car was sitting on the lot between rentals or occured before the scanner was installed.

Also, since Hertz is charging customers to repair every dent, scuff, and scratch, no matter how minor, does that imply that that is the new standard for rental cars? If I am renting a car from them, can I go over it with a magnifying glass and, if I can find spot of chipping paint, they agree to take the car out of rotation until they can get it fixed at an auto body shop and will give me a replacement car of equal or better class?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

ITT: general Hertz shit talk

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I was on the dev side of car auction software. Our auctions were starting to deploy these to create vehicle condition reports. Since COVID, a lot of sales are now made online with no chance to physically inspect the vehicle. These scans protect both the buyer and the dealer missing something. Pretty slick!

CAVEAT: Can't say if it was the same exact system and in any case nobody was calling it AI.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 hours ago

Ah right. I didn't register that they are calling it AI.
Maybe just an image pattern recognition tool made with ML for the damage.