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Hertz Puts Cameras In Its Rental Cars, Says It Has No Plans To Use Them

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-the-better-to-see-you-with dept.

schwit1 writes Hertz has added a camera to many of its newer cars that uses the "NeverLost" navigational device. So why is Hertz creeping out customers with cameras it's not using? "Hertz added the camera as a feature of the NeverLost 6 in the event it was decided, in the future, to activate live agent connectivity to customers by video. In that plan the customer would have needed to turn on the camera by pushing a button (while stationary)," Hertz spokesperson Evelin Imperatrice explained. "The camera feature has not been launched, cannot be operated and we have no current plans to do so."

8 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Why don't i believe them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The camera feature has not been launched, cannot be operated and we have no current plans to do so."

    So we're to believe hertz put the cameras there for no reason other than to hurt their business by scaring away customers, because may be someday they may want them?

  2. Duct tape by Peter+Simpson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Handyman's Secret Weapon.

    1. Re:Duct tape by itzly · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or get a banana with a sticker on it. Eat the banana, and put the sticker over the camera.

    2. Re:Duct tape by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Realize you have no control over it. You don't know where "the" microphone is, whether it is active, nor how many there are. And you never will.

    3. Re:Duct tape by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

      But I don't like bananas :(

      Well. Tough luck. To be a privacy conscious person, one has to eat bananas.

  3. And now, your daily dose of tinfoil hattery by Iamthecheese · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'll just leave this and this here.

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
  4. OnStar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do you recall OnStar? They would let the FBI listen in on car conversations without the passengers being aware.

    http://subliminalnews.com/archives/000119.php

    Of course they would NEVER use these, no way, go about your business citizen.

  5. No plans to use Hertz!!! by EmperorOfCanada · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I love these MBA types who come up with these pretty much psychopathic ways to make a few extra bucks and don't realize that people will have a violently negative reaction.

    I call this spreadsheet thinking; that is where a person has a spreadsheet showing the millions of car rentals and then adds a new line item where they make a few extra pennies per rental and it makes the bottom line go up by a nice jump. Then the MBAs give each other nice bonuses based upon this "brilliant" plan. What they don't have is a line item where their customers will actually pay more to use a different rental company that doesn't have cameras in their cars. The MBAs will just call them a few "irrational" actors who need to "get a life". Then when the media gets a hold of this they will say that "It was blown out of proportion" and eventually they will retreat saying that they need to "reposition" the technology.

    The lesson the company won't learn is to stop hiring psychopathic MBAs.