Once upon a time, I was on my way to a major sporting event with my best friend in his car. (What is the difference between a lawyer and a BMW full of porcupines? The foaming, stab wounds with the porcupines are on the outside!) He skillfully retreated when it seemed like an incredibly small parking space open on the street.
But if there was no slight impact when we gently slam the car behind us. Then there was another minor effect on the car in front of us when he left. “Bumpers are meant to be bumped,” my friend said of the factual matter.
This “bumper bumps” philosophy has instantly paniced me in the “carrier” garage with space between the vehicles to leave some car lengths between the vehicles, and coming from a part of the world where many drivers see slight scratches on precious vehicles that derive their entire personality as a murderable crime. However, I looked as close as possible on all three cars. I couldn't even do a small amount of damage to any of them.
My preconceived notions have been challenged on this fateful day many years ago, so I have been mellowing to the purely cosmetic damage of cars. Treating all the dings and dents on the skin of objects is the most awful insult to your beloved mother, I don't think we'll be friends if we're driving outside at 70 mph in all kinds of weather.
Compared to my evolution on this subject, car rental company Hertz decided to go in the opposite direction. Hertz returns it rather than 3 seconds around the car when you return it, to find subtly obvious problems through artificial intelligence hardware and software systems called uveye.
Uveye's damage scanning system is a bit like an automated car wash entrance. However, rather than absorbing the car with a fun medley of multi-colored solutions, it immerses the car in light, which can detect invisible imperfections of humans. The report ramps that Hertz customers are automatically charged hundreds of dollars for damages allegedly discovered by Uveye, nonexistent or prior to the rental. When rental customers tried to challenge these charges, they've become accustomed to how we all need both work patience and Irish luck and are used to reaching real people who can do something to deal with the problem.
For now, if you are offering your business to any of the other major domestic car rental companies, AI Nanny can almost prevent you from charging for using a bumper. That being said, it is reported that other car rental companies are beginning to invest in implementing similar technologies. Soon we may all remain in another dystopian class, embedded in the already unpleasant job of renting a car while traveling.
Car rental companies are far from the only companies that enjoy the power imbalance of holding all their information cards when using AI to accuse them of causing damage to properties that their customers have no access to. For example, recently, London-based academics rented an apartment in Manhattan through Airbnb. When she got home she was unsure about discovering that she was being charged more than $15,000 for the damages she believed to have caused to the facility. After Hercules' efforts in customer service, some images from the hosts allegedly showing the damage were inconsistent with each other and apparently changed by the AI, Airbnb ultimately not only removed the extra charge, but also refunded her entire stay. Meanwhile, the host was given a warning to violate the terms of Airbnb. His list in the apartment remains live on site.
Of course, customers can also become AI scammers. Certainly, there are many examples of using artificial intelligence to get something free to try and fake bad stay evidence, broken products, etc.
Still, even as AI becomes more and more affordable and accessible, companies that outsource so many internal judgments and machine decisions themselves will always be advantageous. There are rarely any companiess It's about hearing an individual making a call to try to correct something, and big people can afford to alienate many of us (especially when all competitors adopt similar business practices) before they see any outcome on their revenue.
A completely fake image or video is one thing. I don't think we've all come to be experts in AI break-ups, but we'll have to find a way to live in a truly incredible world where so much of what you see with your own eyes. But when it comes to shit like uveye, wouldn't we all agree to pull the plug?
Renting a car can make money as a business long before Uveye arrives. Rather than improving the customer experience, uveye plagues and warns consumers. Let's say you can detect microscopic depressions in a “bumper for bumping” scenario.
Even if uveye put Hertz a little more money, it's not a reasonable trade-off for what it takes away from the traveler's car rental experience. Perhaps at some point, somewhere, you will realize that using AI to ruin your customers more efficiently is not a long-term recipe for success.
Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author Your debt free JD (Affiliate link). He teaches law writing written for a wide range of publications, making him both his business and his joy of being able to read and write financially and scientifically. The view he expresses is probably pure gold, but it is still only himself and should not be attributed to the organization he belongs to. He wouldn't want to share credits anyway. He can reach with [email protected].
