Last Updated on July 1, 2025 by Elizabeth
The next time you return a rental car to an airport, a new inspector might be checking the vehicle over. And you can bet that no ding or scratch will go unnoticed. In April 2025, Hertz Global Holdings announced it had teamed up with tech startup UVeye to install AI-assisted vehicle scanners at Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty locations at major airports across the US. So what does an AI rental car inspector mean for you, the customer?
Hertz claims the system will “enhance the frequency, accuracy, and efficiency” of its vehicle maintenance. We were more than a little skeptical from the jump. The true goal for the rental giant, we guessed, was to hold customers accountable for damage that might otherwise go unnoticed in a manual inspection. It’s telling that these AI inspectors are rolling out at busy airport locations where, historically, checks weren’t always as thorough.
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Hertz’s New AI Rental Car Inspector Makes Headlines
Not even two months in, a notable report seem to validate our fears. One Hertz customer who rented a Volkswagen from Hertz out of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport returned the car with a one-inch scuff mark on the driver’s side rear wheel. “Minutes” after putting the vehicle through the scanner, the customer received a damage charge for the offense. It included $250 to repair it, $125 for “processing,” and an additional $65 for an “administrative fee,” reported The Drive. That’s a whopping $440 in fees for a one-inch tire scuff. Hertz offered a $52 discount if the customer agreed to pay within two days. The follow-up offer was $32.50 discount if he paid within a week. The customer decided not to pay immediately, telling The Drive that he wanted to inquire about the charge. But Hertz’s chatbot for damage claims didn’t allow a live, human agent to enter the conversation. So the customer flagged the claim for an agent to review later.
Needless to say, the story raised eyebrows. MotorTrend‘s take was that this was tantamount to highway robbery, given that “a professional curb-rash repair job typically costs between $100 to $250 per wheel”—and that a whole new wheel might run just slightly more, at around $500. Jalopnik said the story “raises questions” about “the lack of clarity” in Hertz’s pricing. CarBuzz thought “the extra charges themselves feel a bit on the shady side” and wondered why, if the fees were designed to help the company decrease the costs of processing a damage claim, as Hertz claimed, why the company needs to levy a fee in the first place. Car & Driver mused that the new AI inspectors “may bring more costs to the user and be more challenging to dispute.”
A Hertz spokesperson told USA Today that “over 97% of cars scanned with this technology show no billable damage.”
The Upshot: Protect Yourself From an AI Rental Car Inspector
It’s more important than ever to protect yourself against dubious charges. When you pick up your next rental car, take a few minutes to run through our quick to-do list before driving off. Be sure to take pictures of every dent and nick on the vehicle’s exterior and interior. Snap photos of the wheels and the windshield. No pucker or crack is too small to document.
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When you return the car, don’t just toss the keys to the agent and be on your way. Take another round of photos, covering the same ground as you did when you picked up the car and pay special attention to the windshield. Ideally, the before and after photos will be virtually identical—and they will be your proof should any spurious charges show up later on your final bill.
If your rental car is run through an AI inspector, think twice before immediately paying up. Armed with your own photo evidence, you might have better luck dealing with a human in customer service—if you can get a hold of one, that is.
More tips to avoid charges:
