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

This is being framed all dystopian, but I'm not so pessimistic.

The current process is ridiculous - a random teenager in a vest with 15 minutes of training inspects the car when you check it out, and then you get a former drill sergeant when you check it back in. The current process is no less fair and Hertz is no less evil - but in this case its at least impartial and the scans are transparently available.

> The current process is no less fair and Hertz is no less evil - but in this case its at least impartial and the scans are transparently available.

I don't think it's impartial: the implication here is that the same technology is not available to the renter, so Hertz can easily claim damage that was already present at checkout that an ordinary customer picture can't refute. That asymmetry seems bad to me.

That's weird, because when I rent a car, I take photos and videos and I make sure to have a attendant write down the damage on the rental paper before I drive away.

Is basic ass covering weird?

> Is basic ass covering weird?

The point was that basic ass covering isn't good enough; my visual scan and phone photos aren't going to match what a machine designed to find defects can do.

(I think everyone does - or at least should do - what you do. I certainly do.)

I would need examples of the defects that this machine would find that a) would matter enough to bother with and b) not be something a human could bring up arbitrarily too if they happened to not like me.