Hertz falls, erasing its Amazon bump, as Congress looks into its AI damage scanners

Hertz shares surged yesterday, closing up nearly 6% after the company announced it would begin selling used vehicles on Amazon. Today, those gains have been largely erased.

The House of Representatives subcommittee on cybersecurity, information technology, and government innovation has requested a meeting with Hertz officials to discuss its controversial use of AI damage scanners. Shares were recently down 5.7%.

Hertz customers have told Sherwood News that the company’s AI scanners flag small, seemingly insignificant bumps, scuffs, and dents that a human inspector would pass over. Hertz then charges customers excessive fees relative to the damage.

“Some other car rental companies reportedly use AI as a tool but require human staff to review any damage flagged by the scanning system before billing customers; however, Hertz is apparently the only car rental company in the US that issues damage assessments to customers without human review,” reads a letter from US Rep. Nancy Mace, the subcommittee chair, who has called herself “Trump in high heels.”

The letter continues:

“To assist the Subcommittee in better understanding Hertz’s experience as an early adopter of AI scanning technology, the Subcommittee requests a staff-level briefing to discuss Hertz’s expectations for how this technology will benefit its customers and how the use of AI scanning may impact Hertz’s work as a vendor to the Federal government.”