When Hertz last year hired Gil West as CEO of the troubled car rental company—oops, it prefers to be known as a “mobility enterprise”—I was initially happy for the guy. West was a respected longtime Delta executive, publicly credited by CEO Ed Bastian for overseeing the successful integration of Delta’s 2008 acquisition of Northwest Airlines.
West’s only career blemish was getting involved with GM CEO Mary Barra and serving as chief operating officer of her ill-fated Cruise driverless taxi unit, which Barra unceremoniously shuttered last year. West was among the Cruise executives Barra scapegoated for the cowboy culture she blamed for the division’s many safety failures—never mind that Barra chaired Cruise’s board and was telling Wall Street the company would rake in $50 billion annually by 2030.
Sadly, West’s move to Hertz—and his recruitment of three other former Delta executives—has birthed a new Starkman Approved maxim: Airline executives can’t change their gouging spots, no matter where they land. West has introduced a scheme at Hertz so brazen that even Scott Kirby, United’s despicable CEO, might be taken aback.
AI-Driven Damage Profiteering
Hertz has begun rolling out technology from UVeye, an Israeli company with a dual headquarters in New Jersey focused on using AI to automate vehicle inspections. The firm might consider rebranding itself Oy-Vey—a Yiddish expression of exasperation—because as Hertz renters are quickly discovering, the company is using the tech to generate a substantial new profit source.
According to the Times of Israel, Hertz expects the scanner to generate tens of millions in annual revenues by charging customers for even routine wear and tear. Hertz fittingly introduced UVeye at Delta’s home base, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, and the automotive trade media has taken note of the mounting backlash.
Case in point: The Drive this week profiled a renter named Patrick who had his Volkswagen scanned by UVeye, which flagged a 1-inch scuff on the rear driver’s side wheel. Hertz’s ding to Patrick for dinging its vehicle?
- $250 for the “repair
- $125 processing fee
- $65 administrative fee
- Total: $440
All supposedly for a minor wheel scuff—the kind most drivers wouldn’t notice, let alone pay to fix.
Airline-Style “Discounts” for the Gouged
To add insult to financial injury, Hertz offered Patrick a “discount” if he paid quickly—$52 off if he paid within 48 hours, or $32.50 off if he paid within a week. This echoes the warped logic of “premium” credit cards like Chase Sapphire Reserve: pay extra, and we’ll pretend you’re getting a deal.
Naturally, Hertz doesn’t want to expose human employees to the inevitable blowback. The Drive reported Its chatbot-only claims process offers no immediate way to speak with a person. At best, a flagged claim might eventually reach a human agent—but renters can guess how often those agents are empowered to rule in their favor.
Alternatively, one could follow a “Contact Us” link to Thrifty, Hertz’s sister brand, which takes up to 10 days to respond. That’s helpful, considering Hertz’s “early payment discount” expires in seven.
Patrick’s isn’t the only horror story. CarScoops reported on a Reddit user claiming to have been charged $195 for a minuscule dent on the front fender. The user, professing to be a longtime Hertz customer, vowed never to return:
“Reached out to customer service and they said they stand by the AI. There are too many other rental car options to stick with one that pulls BS like this, even if I did enjoy the status.”
(Emphasis mine. Another example of a customer mistakenly believing he had some loyalty appreciation status with a travel company.)
Readers of Jalopnik, a publication catering to gearheads, have also sounded alarms. One commenter explained how Hertz tried to bill them for pre-existing damage on a Polestar they rented. The dent apparently didn’t appear in the “before” photos due to poor lighting. Only after the aggrieved renter submitted their own photos, sent repeated emails, and endured a barrage of threatening notices did Hertz finally drop the charge—months later.
An Industry-Wide Disease
To be fair(ish), Hertz isn’t alone in this highway-robbery model. Gary Leff, my go-to travel blogger, reported that Enterprise is piloting similar tech, and Avis is reportedly considering it as well. But Hertz is leading the race to the bottom—and that’s saying something for a company still recovering from a host of other reputational disasters.
Hertz years ago falsely reported more than 360 customers for stealing vehicles they had lawfully rented. Some were arrested, charged with felonies, even jailed. In December 2022, the company agreed to pay $168 million to settle with 95% of the falsely accused.
And yet somehow, Hertz is still in business.
The EV Scam and the GM-Ford Connection
In 2021, Hertz made headlines with a splashy order for 100,000 Teslas, claiming they’d soon make up 20% of its global fleet. Then-interim CEO Mark Fields—another failed legacy auto exec (ousted by Ford in 2017)—claimed Hertz was leading the charge on sustainability:
“Electric vehicles are now mainstream… The new Hertz is going to lead the way as a mobility company,” Fields said in a news release.
Environmentalism wasn’t the motive. Cost-cutting was. Hertz assumed EVs would require less maintenance—a fatal miscalculation. Repairs were more expensive than expected, renters didn’t want EVs, and the company began dumping the fleet at a loss.
In a delicious bit of circular incompetence, Mary Barra—the same Barra who brought Gil West into her Cruise mess—starred in a promotional video touting Hertz’s plan to buy GM’s EVs. In a Hertz news release, Barra declared:
Our work with Hertz is a huge step forward for emissions reduction and EV adoption… I’m confident each rental experience will further increase purchase consideration for our products.
So far, the only thing increasing is consumer fury, something about which Barra is a leading authority given GM’s mounting quality issues, including the global recall of more than $700,000 of pricey SUVs and trucks because the engines are at risk of failing without notice or warning.
When Abuse Becomes the Business Model
Despite widespread backlash, West is clearly betting that Americans will adapt to rental car gouging just like they’ve tolerated checked bag fees, seat selection surcharges, and now AI-powered shakedowns. The travel-industrial complex has taught us well: resistance is futile.
West’s reward for his forward-thinking cruelty? $35.2 million in compensation last year—even though he didn’t join Hertz until April. That’s more than Mary Barra’s $29.5 million.
Living well is the best revenge, they say. But if West gets tossed from the executive management suite a second time, count me among those who will be raising a glass.