3 ms·

When and why would anyone need to see the driver or the driver a CS rep? How does that help in any kind of scenario that is relevant to driving a rental vehicle

by wahsd 12y ago

When and why would anyone need to see the driver or the driver a CS rep? How does that help in any kind of scenario that is relevant to driving a rental vehicle? Seriously, can anyone come up with a legitimate and relevant use-case?

fpgeek 12y ago
To take one example, the details of rental car controls can sometimes be unfamiliar. I've generally been comfortable pulling out the manual in those situations, but I'm sure some people would prefer a live walkthrough, if available.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  Seeing the rep makes sense, but the rep doesn't need to see you. Unless you've broken off the car controls in your hand and want to show them. Otherwise it seems rather a massive net negative.
- dhimes 12y ago
  I was thinking along the lines of a five minute video clip available when you rent- kind of a training, if you will, like they have for personal watercraft. Optional, but available.
fragmede 12y ago
When you go rent a car from Hertz, they have video kiosks for the CS reps, so instead of dealing with someone in-person, you talk to a computer monitor with a webcam, and there's a live person on the other end video chatting with you. Given they already have that, adding it to their cars doesn't seem like that much of a stretch.
- nuclear_eclipse 12y ago
  I had to do that for a recent trip to Las Vegas, and in all honesty, that was the worst experience I've ever had with renting a car. Terrible voice quality, terrible video quality, extremely awkward, difficulty holding a handset while also trying to fish my driver license and credit card from my wallet and slide them through the reader. I would rather have waited in line for another twenty minutes and dealt with a live human being than go through that atrocity. They even had two people just standing around to direct customers to the stupid video terminals. Just put them behind the counter and make them normal clerks!
  - darkstar999 12y ago
    I used the same device recently but it wasn't that bad, but I agree on the audio quality. I don't care about seeing your face if it sounds like I'm talking through a fax machine.
  - wahsd 12y ago
    That's only one phase towards full obsolescence of humans and rental cars overall.
dragonwriter 12y ago
> When and why would anyone need to see the driver or the driver a CS rep? How does that help in any kind of scenario that is relevant to driving a rental vehicle? Honestly, I think its one of those features that provides no actual value but looks good in commercials. That doesn't mean its not something a company would choose to provide, though,
- kalleboo 12y ago
  Exactly. Remember, Amazon did the same thing with their Fire tablets http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/24/amazon-introduces-mayday-a-unique-and-amazingly-useful-live-tech-support-system-for-kindle/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/24/amazon-introduces-mayday-a-...

by wahsd 12y ago

fpgeek 12y ago

To take one example, the details of rental car controls can sometimes be unfamiliar. I've generally been comfortable pulling out the manual in those situations, but I'm sure some people would prefer a live walkthrough, if available.

MichaelGG 12y ago
Seeing the rep makes sense, but the rep doesn't need to see you. Unless you've broken off the car controls in your hand and want to show them. Otherwise it seems rather a massive net negative.
dhimes 12y ago
I was thinking along the lines of a five minute video clip available when you rent- kind of a training, if you will, like they have for personal watercraft. Optional, but available.

fragmede 12y ago

When you go rent a car from Hertz, they have video kiosks for the CS reps, so instead of dealing with someone in-person, you talk to a computer monitor with a webcam, and there's a live person on the other end video chatting with you. Given they already have that, adding it to their cars doesn't seem like that much of a stretch.

nuclear_eclipse 12y ago
I had to do that for a recent trip to Las Vegas, and in all honesty, that was the worst experience I've ever had with renting a car. Terrible voice quality, terrible video quality, extremely awkward, difficulty holding a handset while also trying to fish my driver license and credit card from my wallet and slide them through the reader. I would rather have waited in line for another twenty minutes and dealt with a live human being than go through that atrocity. They even had two people just standing around to direct customers to the stupid video terminals. Just put them behind the counter and make them normal clerks!
- darkstar999 12y ago
  I used the same device recently but it wasn't that bad, but I agree on the audio quality. I don't care about seeing your face if it sounds like I'm talking through a fax machine.
- wahsd 12y ago
  That's only one phase towards full obsolescence of humans and rental cars overall.

dragonwriter 12y ago

> When and why would anyone need to see the driver or the driver a CS rep? How does that help in any kind of scenario that is relevant to driving a rental vehicle? Honestly, I think its one of those features that provides no actual value but looks good in commercials. That doesn't mean its not something a company would choose to provide, though,

kalleboo 12y ago
Exactly. Remember, Amazon did the same thing with their Fire tablets http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/24/amazon-introduces-mayday-a-unique-and-amazingly-useful-live-tech-support-system-for-kindle/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/24/amazon-introduces-mayday-a-...