Within a few months of Hertz announcing the launch of artificial intelligence for vehicle inspections, starting at the Atlanta airport, the car rental company is facing some backlash after a customer reported getting hit with a $440 charge for a scuff on a wheel.

The Drive, a car news and reviews website, reported in June that a Hertz customer named Patrick rented a Volkswagen at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. After he returned the car, the renter was hit with a $250 bill for the repair via a web app — along with a $125 charge for processing and a $65 administrative fee, the outlet reported.

Hertz defines the processing fee as “the cost to detect and estimate the damage that occurred during your rental,” while the administration fee “covers a portion of the costs” to process the claim, according to The Drive.

Hertz launched the use of UVeye vehicle inspection systems at the Atlanta airport, saying the AI-driven technology would allow it to “bring efficiency and greater accuracy to our maintenance process,” according to Mike Moore, Hertz executive vice president of technical operations, in an April press release.

Hertz said that by “complementing manual checks with UVeye’s technology, customers will enjoy more efficient and transparent automated checks when picking up and dropping off their vehicles.”

The company has since rolled out UVeye installations at a few more airports, with plans to deploy across major U.S. airport locations by the end of the year.

“Vehicle damage has long been a common pain point across the car rental industry for customers and companies alike,” Hertz said in a written statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday. “At Hertz, we’re using this technology to tackle this head-on.”

The rental car company said its goal is to ensure “customers are not charged for damage that didn’t occur during the rental, while bringing greater transparency, precision and speed to the process when new damage is detected.”

Hertz also said more than 97% of its cars scanned with the technology show no billable damage, “proving that the vast majority of rentals are incident-free.”

But some on social media are already threatening to boycott Hertz because of its use of the AI technology.

“I will never rent from @Hertz again,” Glenn E. Martin posted on social media platform X.

Martin, who lives in New York, told the AJC “scratches on cars are a given.”

A Pew Research Center report released in April showed that 51% of U.S. adults surveyed are more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life. About 43% of survey respondents said they think AI will harm them, while 24% expect it to benefit them and one-third are unsure.

About 55% of U.S. adults say they want more control over how AI is used in their lives, 59% are skeptical of industry efforts around responsible AI and 62% aren’t confident the government will regulate AI effectively, the Pew report said.

Hertz CEO Gil West, a former chief operating officer of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, said during an investor conference call in May on the car rental company’s first quarter financial results that the partnership with UVeye “will enhance the speed and accuracy of our vehicle inspections and damage assessments, while also creating a more transparent digital first experience for our customers.”

The company also expects the technology to allow it to instantly analyze high-resolution images of tire tread to see when tires need to be replaced.

West has led a “comprehensive strategic transformation” of the company, focused on fleet management, revenue optimization and cost efficiency, according to the company in its news release on the financial results.

In response to the incident reported in The Drive, Hertz said an agent reviewed the matter, manually reviewed photos and confirmed the damage on the alloy.

At the Atlanta airport and other places where it is deploying the AI system, Hertz uses UVeye to scan vehicles at pickup at and return, getting 360-degree images of the vehicle, tires, glass and undercarriage. A change can prompt damage reports sent to customers with before-and-after photos.

Hertz said customers can discuss the damage charges with customer service and can ask for additional images. The company said its damage policy is the same regardless of how the vehicle is inspected.

©2025 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.