A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car

The ultimate goal is to intimidate renters into purchasing as much insurance (Collision Damage Waiver, Liability, etc.) as possible, effectively doubling the cost of a daily rental.

Exactly, companies favorite thing thing to sell is nothing at all. Subscriptions, insurance, service fees...

Fairly-priced insurance for this sort of thing is available for much closer to its actuarial value—that is to say, much cheaper than at the rental car counter. So cheap, in fact, that in the US, surprisingly many consumer credit cards toss in some sort of rental car insurance at no charge—good wherever, whenever, and however often (within reason). Without even so much as a driving history check.

For that matter, the car rental firms routinely bundle damage waivers/insurance products into their volume/corporate contracts and still arrive at prices below the retail base rates.

I don't think it's the insurance itself that's being sold here at all. It's more more predatory than that: it's the kind of price discrimination that squeezes a premium for "peace of mind" from the segment of their retail trade who are nervous, inexperienced, risk-averse, or financially unable to accept the small risk of an expensive event. Like a payday loan—it's spectacularly expensive to be poor.

You come out ahead very quickly getting a credit card that will cover the rental car (e.g. a Chase Sapphire Preferred) and paying the annual fee instead of buying insurance through the rental car company.

There are tons of cards with no annual fees that offer collision damage waiver too.

The small print (of my card) mentions a maximum vehicle value. Every time I’ve asked for the vehicle’s value when renting abroad, it’s been higher than the card’s maximum.

I've never seen a no-annual-fee card that covers loss of use though. No-annual-fee card damage waivers are also typically secondary to your personal insurance (meaning you have to make a claim and your rates could go up), while the CSP's insurance is primary so your personal insurance is not involved at all.