Transcript: Hertz Isn’t Just a Rental Car Company Anymore

Executive Summary

Hertz CEO Gil West joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the company’s back-to-basics turnaround alongside its forward-looking Oro Mobility venture, which is designed to serve as a B2B connective layer between demand aggregators, tech companies, and automotive OEMs.

Gil explains how Hertz’s 100-plus years of fleet operations, 11,400 global locations, 2,700 chargers, and experienced technician workforce position Oro to own and operate both human-driven and autonomous vehicle fleets at scale. He outlines how peak-and-valley fleet management, local market intelligence, and EV charging expertise are directly transferable to robotaxi operations.

He describes Hertz not as a rental car company alone, but as a platform of multiple businesses, including used car sales and service infrastructure with Oro as a key growth pillar shaping the next century of mobility.

Key The Road to Autonomy Episode Questions Answered

The Road to Autonomy Topics & Timestamps

[0:00] Hertz’s Turnaround

Under CEO Gil West, Hertz’s customer experience metrics have climbed sharply, and the brand is being rebuilt on two fronts at once, the consumer rental business and a new fleet management arm.

[1:18] Oro Mobility

Oro Mobility is Hertz’s asset-heavy operating company, launched with Uber as an early partner. West frames it as the connective tissue between the demand aggregators, the technology companies, and the OEMs, and says Hertz could hold robotaxis on its own balance sheet as both owner and operator.

[4:43] Hertz’s Infrastructure Advantage

Hertz runs 2,700 chargers and more than 11,000 service locations across roughly 160 countries, a footprint West says would take decades and billions of dollars to replicate. That local presence also feeds real demand intelligence, from seasonal swings to pre-positioning fleets for the World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.

[13:29] Robotaxi Technicians

Servicing autonomous fleets demands a new class of technician trained on sensors and calibration, not just engines and tires. West draws on his aviation background to explain how Hertz builds the tech ops capability robotaxi operators will depend on.

[15:36] Robotaxis and Rideshare are Complementary

Gil West argues autonomy does not cannibalize the core business, it complements it. Rental, rideshare, and robotaxi demand peak at different times, and Hertz can serve all three as a single B2B supplier sweating the same assets.

[19:27] Infrastructure Permitting

The bottleneck for autonomous fleets is not the vehicle, it is the ground. Permitting, energy, and connecting substations carry long lead times, and Hertz’s existing depots give it a head start new entrants cannot easily match.

[22:26] Peaks and Valleys of Asset Ownership

The economics come down to hours in service. West explains how Hertz sweats each asset through peaks and valleys of demand, staging fleets the way an airline stages aircraft and using institutional knowledge plus partner data to keep utilization high.

[25:47] Inspiration for Oro Mobility

Gil West points to the Q1 earnings statement and a Gretzky line about skating to where the puck is going. Oro was built to capture utilization across cyclic demand, extending beyond rideshare into delivery and beyond.

[28:28] Hertz as a Platform Business

Beyond rental, Hertz is one of the largest used car sellers in the world and runs a vast network of service centers, fueling, charging, and car washes. West sees a platform with one customer today and room for many more, and a path to becoming the platform for physical AI.

[30:28] Managing the Turnaround

Gil West describes leading a complex business through a turnaround while holding the line on profitability and free cash flow. Job one is the core rental business, but the team is innovating alongside it rather than chasing shiny objects.

[34:21] Defining Success for Oro Mobility

Success means Oro shapes the future of mobility the way Hertz shaped the rental car industry a century ago. West lists the ingredients already in place, an iconic brand, a global footprint, operating skill at scale, and the ability to own and run large fleets.

[35:22] Hertz Over the Next Century

Gil West wants the public to see Hertz as a company built to last another hundred years, moving from human-driven fleets into the autonomous age as a connective layer in mobility. Brulte closes it plainly, the future is bright, the future is autonomous, the future is Hertz.

[37:03] AUTNMY AI

AUTNMY AI is an applied intelligence firm whose mission is to develop a field-tested, ground-truth understanding of how the Autonomy Economy is being built and translate that understanding into the intelligence, foresight, and counsel that help the world’s leading institutional investors navigate the most consequential industrial transition of this century.

Full The Road to Autonomy Episode Transcript

Hertz Turnaround and Core Business Progress

Grayson Brulte: Gil, it’s awesome to have you back on the Road to Autonomy. You’re doing really great things at Hertz. How are things over at Hertz these days?

Gil West: Oh, Grayson, thanks for having me, man. It’s great to see you again. Well, I mean, look, we’re living the dream at Hertz. You know, we’ve been working hard to transform an iconic American company that literally founded an industry and I think the team’s been making great progress on all fronts, and we’ve been focused really on a, a, back to basics turnaround of the core rental car business, while we’ve also been really driving innovation and building a new Hertz for the future of mobility

Grayson Brulte: One thing that I’ve noticed from my seat as a consumer, the Hertz brand is strengthening once again. Is that part of your core turnaround strategy, is strengthening the, the core Hertz brand?

Gil West: Well, first thank you for saying that. Thank you for noticing it. We’re, we’ve really been leaning in on the customer experience side and you know, so last year was transformative. We, we literally doubled our net promoter score. a lot of great efforts to lean back into the customer experience. We’ve got an iconic brand that’s got a history of taking care of customers and, you know, we need to, we need to live up to that expectation. So we’re investing heavily back into the customer

Grayson Brulte: And that’s on the, the consumer side, traditional if I go to an airport and, and I, and I rent a Hertz. But on, on the fleet management side, you’re also investing. While you recently announced Oro Mobility in a partnership with Uber, it seems to me that you’re, you’re building two businesses all connected with the core service of fleet management.

Introducing Oro Mobility: The B2B Fleet Bridge

Gil West: It is, yeah. so we’re, we’re one of the largest fleet operators in, in rideshare rental fleets in the world. So we, we put together Oro Mobility to really build off those strengths to create what we think of as a connective tissue for the future of mobility. So Oro, think of Oro as the bridge between demand aggregators, the tech companies, and the automotive OEMs, and we’re– our focus is really just to provide high-quality turnkey supply and do that on both human-driven fleets as well as autonomous fleets. So think of us as the operating company, right? We’re an asset-heavy operating company, and we built that company literally over more than 100 years at Hertz. So we’re applying those kind of same skills, core competencies, infrastructure investments in, in a different way

Grayson Brulte: And the key thing is you understand appreciation just about better than anybody

Gil West: Right now at Hertz. We, you know, we own tens of billions of dollars of cars, so depreciation matters, absolutely

Grayson Brulte: With that understanding of d- depreciation, asset ownership, asset management, at some point could we see Hertz potentially holding robotaxis on the balance sheet?

Hertz as a Future Robotaxi Asset Owner

Gil West: Yeah. I mean, look, we, we own and manage large fleets now, so we’re asset heavy, right? We’ve got infrastructure. We know how to buy vehicles. We know how to operate them. We know how to exit vehicles. So yeah, our plan would be, Oro would be an asset owner ultimately of robotaxis in the future, as well as an operator

Grayson Brulte: When you l- when you combine the asset ownership with the operations side and you look at your strategic assets, you have real estate, you have charging infrastructure, you have as called the Hertz playbook of how to maintain a car, what, what to do and if certain items are, are left in the car. Do you take that Hertz playbook and then deploy it with Oro as well?

Gil West: Yeah. So yeah, first of all, we, I mean, we do that each and every day in our core rental car business. So, you know, as an example, if somebody leaves an iPad or a, a phone in the car or been smoking in the car, over the years, we developed logistics to return those items to customers. You know, we– we’re used to handling unusual situations. We develop, you know, processes, supplies to clean up after others. You know, so all those capabilities we’re applying to Oro for both the human and the autonomous fleet

Grayson Brulte: And then how do you ensure u- uptime and, and reliability? I ask that because you have a very strong background at Delta, where you and the team, you, you turned the airline around, and now it’s, it’s the world’s leading c- commercial airline. So how do you ensure the, the reliability of these fleets when you, when you own these assets, you maintain these assets, and you deploy these assets?

Gil West: Well, I mean, boy, ultimately, you know, an asset-heavy model like we have, it’s all about sweating the assets, right? And driving up time and utilization and you know, that’s critical of course, in the, the, Hertz core rental car business. and ultimately that led us to enter the rideshare market to drive more utilization, right? As we rent cars to Uber and Lyft drivers. But it also led us to enter this human-driven supply chain where we own the cars and then we put the drivers in them. So with the ultimate goal of let’s not let cars just sit around, right? because we’re, we’re depreciating, we’re not earning money. So on I think on the back end of that, you have to have the capabilities to keep the cars in a serviceable condition. And that, that means, you know, turning the vehicles, cleaning them, washing them, fueling them, maintaining them, and then thinking about it as a flow. So you manage the flow and the constraints and we, you know, we’ve again been building these capabilities and infrastructures to do all those things over about 100 years. So all this, all those things are necessary with AVs as well. And then on the AV front, you know, as an added bonus, we got a team that’s got a lot of AV operating experience over the years as well

Strategic Infrastructure: 2,700 Chargers and 11,000 Locations

Grayson Brulte: I- if you look at your assets that you’ve disclosed to the SEC of 2,700 chargers over 11,000 service locations, to me, that becomes, in my opinion, a strategic advantage for you as you scale the Ora business

Gil West: Yeah. It, it really does. You know, I think, you know, as you know, we’re, of course, we’ve got a global operating footprint that Auro can leverage, right? And we, we wanna be a global provider in these services, and we have the infrastructure, the assets, the operating capabilities really to lean into and apply to Auro. So again, whether it’s, you know, the human-driven fleets or robotaxis, you know, we, we got that investment. You know, and I, I would just say it would take– I mean, if you started from scratch today, I mean, it would take decades and billions of dollars to replicate all that. So, I mean, we have this running start, you know, and naturally positioned, I think, to, to be a real player in this space

Grayson Brulte: And for the audience, to highlight some numbers here, you’re in over 160 countries and you have o- over 11,400 locations. Ag- again, this, to me, the strategic ability to, let’s just say partner with Acme Company or partner w- with Company B to scale. Do you envision deals in the future where you partner with one company to be the fleet service provider and then eventually scale that globally by leveraging your existing footprint?

Gil West: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So you know, we’ve got, we’ve got a global footprint now and Oro will leverage that. You know, and, and as you think about the infrastructure investment that we have all over the world, we’ve also got some great partnerships all over the world, right? And we’ve got franchises all over the world. So adapting the model of, you know, not just the facilities that, you know, we may own but also partnerships through franchisees so we can, we can leverage into those as well. But we’re, I mean, we’re an asset heavy business, right? And we, you know, own fleets, we manage fleets, we have the infrastructure you talked about, and it’s how do we leverage that really to provide fleet operating capacity for B2B partners.

Grayson Brulte: I think another strategic advantage that you have of operating in 160 countries is relationships. You, you have on-the-ground field relationships and individuals that work for you in the Hort- in the Hertz Corporation might perhaps have a relationship with the, with the local power company, with the, with the local service provider. To me, that just becomes a s- strategic advantage as you scale because, as you know very well, robotaxis are going to be electrified, and you’re gonna have to have that charging infrastructure. Are you leveraging that, that on-the-ground intelligence that you have from your employees in these local markets as you look to scale this business?

Local Market Intelligence and EV Charging Expertise

Gil West: Yeah, it’s a great point because every market ultimately is local, right? There’s some broader kind of constructs, business partnerships, strategies, all those things are, are key, but it all comes together in a local market where you’ve got the, the operating capability locally, right? And, and be able to cover, you know, not just a specific point in the market, but the broader market as well. And you’ve got to have, got to have the ability to put that together, and that requires local knowledge, local market knowledge. And you know, we have you know, we have general managers of our facilities all around the country and the world for that matter, that know these markets, that have grown up in them, been operating in them for decades. And, and it’s really important to leverage that you know, that intel and infrastructure. And plus, you know, we’ve we’ve also got a lot of EV experience as well. So the charging side you know, whether it’s through our traditional rental car business or, or some of the cars that we rent to Uber and Lyft drivers today, you know, quite a few of those have been EVs, you know, over the years. So we’ve we’ve grown to understand the charging logistics, make those char- investments in charging networks. And, you know, I, I would still argue most, if not all EVs in the future will be EVs. So it’s important to have those skills as well. And those are– and that’s very local, as you know, trying to build out that infrastructure. It’s not easy, and you need to understand the local challenges associated with those things.

Grayson Brulte: But if you take a, let’s say, a general manager, for example, in a local market, what input do they have in saying, “Okay, Mr. West, we, we, we need to re- 100 new cars in this market.” What input do they have when this says, “Okay, we’ve noticed a trend where the consumers are requesting EVs”? Do they have a say in that as you start to build out the, I’m gonna call it the formula or the f- the, the fleet diversification in the local markets?

Gil West: Yeah, absolutely. So if you look at, like, our traditional rental car business, that dialogue literally is happening every day in the marketplace for both, both longer term plans for the next year, let’s say, but also tactically, you know, what do we have for the next week, right? And, and then it’s a combination of our local market operators, our fleet team, and then our commercial team, so that we can bring all that together at a local market to understand how do we optimize all of that. Because, you know, you got seasonal aspects in markets. You know, Florida’s, you know, hot in the– I mean, it’s hot in the business sense in the winter, right? Once it gets hot physically with temperature, people tend to leave South Florida. So that’s a seasonal market that we’ve got to continue to adapt to, and the local, you know, local market managers know that really well, and then f- plan that, you know, both on a fleet basis, commercial basis, you know, with, with their respective counterparts. So that intelligence is critical for the business. And, and it also applies in Auro because we’ve got, you know, operating footprint and they know the city, they know the patterns. So, you know, we try to bring that same level of intelligence into this new business as well

Grayson Brulte: The intelligence is the key. His- this is his- historically from an aggregate perspective, I’ve noticed, and it’s from South Florida, s- say come late May, early June, all of a sudden those one-way rates up to the Northeast, they’re a lot cheaper than they historically were, and the, your drop fees go away

Gil West: Yeah, I hope you drive those, Grayson, because, you know, it saves us having to ship the cars when we can, you know, actually have you pay, you know, pay us to be able to drive one up there for us. So yeah, we, we like that model. You know, we do try to move, you know, position some of our inventory through those in- customer incentives so both parties win ultimately

Grayson Brulte: No, it’s great. It, it’s, it’s a win-win situation. On the robotaxi side, obviously, let’s just use the very, very talked about, very public example of the World Cup. And there are certain cities around the United States where there’s going to be more individuals than historically because of the World Cup. Do, do you position more vehicles in those select markets? And in the future, will you position perhaps more robotaxis markets when you have high demand? And let’s even use the Olympics in 2028 for an example.

Gil West: Yeah, it’s a great question. You know, we, we have some levers, but it’s not, you know, it’s not unlimited levers you have to pull because there are trade-offs if you’re physically shipping cars, the cost of that becomes relatively high. But we do, we do see those patterns you know, proactively. And then we do have some levers locally. We, we look at our fleet management as a pool of assets within a region, so we can shift that pool, let’s say, to s- you know, a Super Bowl or a World Cup event in a city in that region and move inventory around to pre-position it there to try to capitalize on the increased demand in that area. So we do we do pull those levers. Longer term, if we have a longer planning horizon, then we can, you know, we can plan for that kind of on a more annualized basis. If we see a major event that may be coming up, we can pre-position inventory that way more proactively.

Grayson Brulte: Perhaps we see those one-way fares that are very good if you’re heading towards an Event

Gil West: Exactly. There you go. Exactly.

Grayson Brulte: And so you’re diversified in, in, in hundreds of countries around the world. How does it work from a maintenance standpoint, from a, a technician from a training standpoint? Do they come down to Estero, Florida, and th- they get trained on certain different technologies, different maintenance? How does that work?

Gil West: Yeah. So we, we, we train principally locally. we bring the training to them, if you will, and we hire many experienced technicians. I think it’s one of the real strengths at Hertz is we have an incredible you know, tech ops team, as we call it. But these are maintenance technicians that, you know, have vast experience around all types of vehicles. There’s some expertise, you know, as well with EVs as an example. And you know, the team then, of course, gets the necessary training. We make the in- necessary investments in tooling and it’s a real core competency. So we’re very fortunate to, to have that in our playbook.

Grayson Brulte: As you scale Oro, will you look to hire s- specialized technicians that are accustomed or have experience working on robotaxis that, you have sensors and various different things we don’t have on traditional vehicles?

Specialized AV Technicians and Aviation-Trained Skills

Gil West: Yeah. I mean, it’s a great point because as you know, with robotaxis, there’s a lot of, you know, laptop maintenance going on, right? Between sensor troubleshooting, you know, systems troubleshooting, which we do have experience with to some degree with more advanced EVs. But there are new skills we’re gonna need to continue to build the team around. And, you know, the autonomous maintenance and technology, in particular the sensor technology, those are skills we’ll bring in. we’re fortunate that we have a team with you know, again, with direct AV operating experience, so they’ve seen that movie before. And then we’ve also got a team that you know, in large part in this space comes from the aviation industry. So they’ve seen, you know, advanced sensors on aircraft and kind of understand that level of systems maintenance and troubleshooting. So the combination of all those things, I think will give us a, a great foundation to build from as we scale the AV business.

Grayson Brulte: And to me, if you look at the AV business, I look at this as, in my opinion, from a complementing business. This is hypothetical. If all suddenly you start noticing something in the data points, so you’re going, say, let’s just use the Miami market. You’re seeing a large portion of trips going from Homestead to Miami Gardens or to, let’s just give an extreme, Fort Lauderdale Airport. Will, will you look to potentially position human-driven vehicles there, either through the Uber partnership from a hybrid perspective or rental cars, if you start noticing these long distances where an individual could rent a car depending on the data that you see there?

Gil West: Yeah, we, we see, we see the rideshare and the rental space that we’re in now with the advent of Auro for us is complimentary actually. So, you know, I mean, if you go back, you know, what, five years ago, 10 years ago, when rideshare was, you know, first emerging and then grew rapidly, right? We were an either/or model. We were, we were staked out in the rental car space and didn’t really have any business in the rideshare business. But we’ve entered that business over the last few years, and now we’re scaling it. And it’s a, it’s a B2B partnership model with us, right? I mean, we’re, we’re not in the rideshare business per se, but we’re a supplier to the rideshare business. So that gives us the ability to to work and have a, have a real business with a lot of growth potential in rideshare, and also maintain a rent-a-car business. So we’ve got, you know, we’ve got really covering both aspects of the scenario that you described.

Grayson Brulte: The line that I’ve used for a long time is the Hollywood line, below the line. And below the line is this, the producers, the grips that hold it, the, the cameraman, the directors, the m- the every individual not in front of the camera. And I’ve always said that’s where the margin’s going to, to come in. And now you’re starting to see certain companies are, are are buying real estate assets and then they’re offloading to, to third-party managements. Could we ever see a scenario in the future where Hertz/Oro buys a depot and, and operates it as a pure robotaxi depot? Or will we always look to leverage Hertz’s existing real estate?

Gil West: No, we’re, we’re– we will I think as you look at Auro and we move forward, no, we’ll have dedicated robotaxi operations, candidly. You know what I mean? We’re it’s kind of, it. We’re, we’re evolving into that now with our human-driven operations and will with autonomous, where, you know, we’re, we’re able to co-mingle, but we are also able to dedicate, you know, assuming the scale is there. You know, it makes sense to kind of keep focused. We have, we have a distributed footprint, right, within almost every city in the country and global even, that we have operations not just at airports, but off airport operations that we lean into and can run these whether they’re robotaxis or human-driven fleets out of. So it’s a different operating DNA than renting cars, right? but a lot of the same processes, infrastructure, everything’s required as well. So we’re developing a bit of a new muscle tone with the human-driven fleet as an example where we’re deve- it’s forcing us to develop, you know, it’s one thing to rent a car and turn it for rental, but this is more of a pre-paint plan, turnkey capacity model for us, like on the human-driven side and autonomous side. So you’re planning windows when you need to have the supply in place, when you turn and manage the fleets, you know, all those things are really a different operating cadence, require different processes, even different systems. So the team’s been working hard kind of developing those things, bringing them online, but also taking advantage of the things we’ve been doing for 100 years, cleaning vehicles, you know, fueling them, maintaining them. So there’s a combination of new skills as well as leveraging the existing capabilities. If you look at, this, I’m gonna just base this on the US markets. If you look at permitting and energy and connecting substations, you have city councils you have to go through, you have the local ordinances, you have permitting, and frankly, it could take a long time. How do you plan for that long lead time?

Grayson Brulte: ‘Cause nobody’s come with a shortcut yet to say, okay, if you’re partnered with say, Acme Robotaxi Company, and they wanna pay you for your services, but yet we, you have to get all these permits. How do you plan for that long lead time?

Gil West: Yeah, I think, you know, it is, it is a, it is a challenging problem for the industry to resolve. I mean, we’re, we. Our starting point, as you pointed out, I think we’ve got 2,700 chargers, right? We got 11,000 locations. So we’ve got a footprint, right? We’ve got infrastructure. Some of that may need additional power requirements, but, you know, every one of these facilities has some level of power already that you can install chargers with. It’s how much, you know, how much capacity you’re trying to add. And, you know, I d- I think it’s key to, to have the right partners in this space, right? And having, having been involved in this in a prior life, you know, I think it, it’s key to s- to be able to scale, to have the right partners to scale. And look, we don’t build charging stations, we use them. So having those partnerships are really key to help unlock the scale

Grayson Brulte: I’m gonna go in, in the back and I’m gonna use, I’m gonna butcher, I’ll say, an airline analogy ’cause it, it, it popped into my head. So if you look around the United States, so you have A- ATL in Atlanta, you have LAX in, in Los Angeles. Do we ever start to see, let’s call it HTZ for Hertz, and say, “Okay, we got the Hertz, the HTZ depot in Miami. We’ve got the HTZ depot in LA where it’s shared.” So you just, it becomes like th- this hub where instead of the airplanes, the robotaxis come in to charge, the, the Uber, Lyft vehicles that you rent come in to charge, and you kinda, let’s just call it, you have the, the Hertz airports everywhere, so not, not just in one location. Could we see something like that?

Gil West: Yeah. I mean, that’s, that’s generally the vision, right? Is that we’ve got, we’ve got a depot and we’re providing supply, right? And the supply can be to multiple partners for that matter. But, you know, we’re able to own the, own the asset. We’re able to turn it, clean it, service it, fuel it, maintain it, and put it back into the, you know, deploy it, right, for use by another partner. So that’s, that’s really how we see the Oro model here, right? I don’t really see Oro developing into its own brand to B2C. It’s more a B2B type model. So, you know, like a partner with Uber that we’ve launched our human-driven example, whether the fleet partners that we would have with Uber and Nuro and Lucid, right? Those are B2B partners where we’re providing, you know, the operating capabilities. But, you know, the, the demand aggregation can be done somewhere else, right? That we don’t really see that part as as Oro per se.

Grayson Brulte: How many hours a day are you estimating, projecting that a Hertz-managed robotaxi will be, be actively in service? Are you planning for that yet?

Peak-and-Valley Fleet Utilization Strategy

Gil West: Well, yeah, I, you know, the way I look at it we talked about sweating the asset earlier, so it’s key to do that. But I think it’s, it’s a little less about how many hours than it is about being available during the right hours, because demand isn’t flat through the day, right? There are always peaks and valleys. So I think our focus is that every vehicle is available during peaks, and then we turn the vehicles, you know, charge them, clean them, maintain them during the valley periods, right? So the, the off-peak operational processes, flow, constraint management is really key to accomplishing that and ensuring that we got the right fleet available at the right time. But I mean, we’ll, we’ll, you know, we’ll sweat as many profitable hours as possible from the assets, the way I look at it. Not every hour is created equal from a profit

Grayson Brulte: That’s, that’s perfectly said ’cause, I mean, I’m going back to airlines again. You get the planes that co- the planes that are coming in at AM or that busy time at SFO, you’ve gotta make sure that the n- the Nuro, Lucid, Uber robotaxis are ready to go. It’s not like, “Hello? where are.” No, they’re, they’re here ready to go. You got them staged and ready to go. Does a lot of that come, that, that institutional knowledge that you have, do, do you give that to, say, it’s your partner Uber, for example, and say, “Okay,” do you use their data, use your institutional knowledge, or how do you determine where initially you’re going to position these, these vehicles if you wanna, say, to start the shift, if you wanna use that term?

Gil West: Yeah, I think it, yeah, I mean, it really is the partnership, right? We gotta jointly plan, you know, what is the capacity requirement when. And then, you know, as the operating company, we’ve gotta deliver on that, right? And, and have, you know high standards, SLAs, and make sure we, we execute to that model. And but, but, you know, you have to understand what your demand patterns are. The Ubers of the world understand that, of course. And then we need to understand, okay, what does that translate into? How many vehicles we need, you know, when and where, and then, then we execute on that piece of the equation. And we’ve gotta plan all the background activities and sequence those accordingly, right? That’s really the secret sauce of all of that, is understanding, okay, how, how do, how do we, you know, when do we, when do we take, you know the time to charge the vehicle, right? When do we take the time to repair the vehicle? and that’s, that’s key to be as proactive in all that as possible, rather than taking the vehicle out of service, you know, during a peak period to do that, right? That’s, that’s the worst case scenario, really.

Grayson Brulte: And as part of the fleet management, I know I’m gonna go in the weeds, your more traditional rental car business. Do you look at the, at the, at the tire, the PSI in the tire? Do you look at all those little nooks and crannies, give it a safety check, do the seat belts work, and all of that stuff that you traditionally do?

Gil West: Absolutely. So we got safety checklist, right, with vehicles. you know, we’ve, we’ve even worked to deploy technology that can measure, you know measure tire wear, all these things for us, right? And look for certain damages, you know, underneath the car or whatever, that ultimately makes sure that we got safe vehicles because that’s, you know, that’s foundational to everything we do

Grayson Brulte: And you’re, you’re doing a really good job with the company. I wanna read something that you’ve released as part of the, the Q1 earnings release here. You said, “The launch of Oro Mobility marks an important milestone in the expansion of the Hertz growth platform. As the mobility ecosystem evolves, there is a clear need for an operational layer that connects demand platforms with vehicles and autonomous technology at scale. Leveraging Hertz’s century of experience in complex fleet operations, Oro is purpose-built to address that gap by delivering flexible, integrated fleet solutions for both driver-led and autonomous models, opening a new chapter for Hertz.” That’s well said. You clearly see, to use the Gretzky term, where the puck is going. I know we got the NHL finals going on, but what was the inspiration behind that?

Gil West: Yeah. I, I think it’s, it’s really one behind– I mean, we, we see Oro as being the supply provider for the future of mobility, right? And you know, it’s really, as we talked about, the bridge that connects the demand aggregators, the tech companies, and the vehicle OEM. So we’ll own and operate large fleets. We’ll do– we’ll provide turnkey high quality supply, and do that for both, you know, human and and autonomous vehicles. So I, I, I. That, that really is the catalyst. I think I talked about it earlier as well, is as we think about the vehicles we currently own, how do we get more utilization out of those? And that led us into deeper ride-hail partnerships and, and entering that business because we would have, you know. And it’s– And look, we’re a, we’re a s- the rental car business is cyclic, right? There’s big seasonal swings, there’s day of week swings, there’s time of day swings, and during those valleys, you’re always asking yourself, “All right, we have a car sitting there. What can we do with it?” Right? So ride-share is a natural beneficiary of that. So we own the asset. It becomes how do we deploy it effectively? And we do that through partnerships really. And that was generally the catalyst to look at those type of Things.

Grayson Brulte: Trend that I’ve noticed from my house is that Amazon drivers are using traditional cars. Are you looking at leasing your vehicles to not, not ride, necessarily ride shares, but ride share delivery drivers as well?

Gil West: Yeah, no, I mean, we, we see that. I mean we’re– Well, I, I talk rideshare, but the reality is, you know, delivery as well. These are big markets, as you know. It’s the same, you know, same concept. it’s a it’s an asset, a car, human-driven, autonomous-driven that, you know, can move people or, or packages or food. So yeah, we see, we see the you know, our ability to, to cover that end to end as just the same operating footprint, same vehicles, all those things

Grayson Brulte: Is the goal at the end of the day to create value beyond the traditional car rental business and say, “Okay, we, we can create value, we can create other big self-sustaining businesses that use this, the traditional as the core”?

Hertz as a Multi-Business Platform Beyond Rental Cars

Gil West: Yeah, no, thanks. Yeah, thanks for that question. I you know, the way I look at it is Hertz is far more than a rental car company, okay? We’re, we’re really a platform of multiple businesses. So we’ve been talking about Oro as part of that. It’s a great example, you know. But beyond Oro, you know, we, we are one of the largest used car dealerships in the world, right? And we got a– The other thing is we just got a vast footprint of service centers, if you think about it. We’ve got, you know, fueling station, EV charging stations, car washes, Jiffy Lubes all over the planet, you know, but we only have one customer now, our rental car business. So the opportunity’s there to think of that differently and think that we can add other customers beyond our rental car business and, and that’s the way we see it and you know, the, the broader platform. But Oro is a, is a key piece of that, right? And we’re really happy about what we’ve been able to accomplish so far. But it’s, you know, it’s still the, the potential and as we look at these markets there’s a, there’s a lot more to do here and we’re really excited about it

Grayson Brulte: Oh, it could be a buzz term, but you could become the platform for physical AI, which is essentially robotaxis, ’cause we s- Said this earlier

Gil West: Write that down right now, Grayson. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, that’s great. Yeah. Physical AI, it’s true. Yeah. Yeah. It’s really it is probably the t- you know, one of the, one of the most dramatic applications of AIs anywhere is robotaxi, right? So yeah, to be a part of that

Grayson Brulte: And now next thing you know, I’m gonna see you on stage either CES or GTC with Jensen and say, “Mr. Gil West, the CEO of the Platform for Physical AI. One and away you go.”

Gil West: Oh, I’m too low profile for that, but thanks. Thanks, Grayson. Yeah, that’s Kind of you

Grayson Brulte: But you, you, you inherited a business that, that, a, a complex business that needed a, a turnaround, and you’ve made a, a lot of progress in that turnaround. You- the last couple quarters, the statements that you’ve made to The Street have been very, very positive. What is it like managing such a complex business in the midst of a turnaround as you’re focused on profitability and free cash flow?

Gil West: Yeah, no, it’s a great question. well, first we gotta stay focused on job one, and that’s improving our core rental car business, right? And again, I think the team’s been making great progress there, but there’s still work to do and everybody’s focused on that. But, you know, we can’t just do that, right? We gotta build for the future. And it’s just innovation at a, at a big company is hard, right? I think if you talk to anybody at a big company that’s been around for decades would tell you the same thing. But we have a great team. we’re not just chasing shiny objects here, you know, but we’re, we’re innovating while we’re improving the core business at the same time. And again, talked about the platform, but Auro is an example of that, where we’ve taken a, you know, concept, built off existing core competencies and strengths, and now, you know, created, you know, business within a business that’s, you know, got into into big high growth markets that we’re well-positioned to take advantage of

Grayson Brulte: As, as you and the leadership team, the Oro team build for the future, how do you get the entire Hertz culture to lean into this let’s build for the future mentality?

Building an Innovation Culture Inside an Iconic Brand

Gil West: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I think to some degree, lean into the past, right? Because, you know, I j- I look at Hertz and, you know, one of my draws to Hertz to be a part of the team is, I mean, Hertz invented the rental car industry, right? what, you know, well over 100 years ago. And I think about that innovation and what it took and, you know, what, what the company built and lasted this long, right? As we think about that, it’s, you know, what are we gonna do for the next 100 years? How are we gonna. We’re, we’re really stewards of an iconic brand here, an iconic American company. So how do we keep that going for another 100 years? So to me, and I think a large portion of the team, it’s that motivation, right? We’ve got the day job of running the core business, but there’s also the, the really exciting part of how do we innovate and create and build for the future, right? And it’s hard because, you know, to some degree, you know, we’re all consumed with the day job. But part of it is bifurcating the teams, keeping them focused, right? Figuring out what the right interfaces are. Where do we make the investments? How do we run fast in an area that, you know, we’re more deliberate in other areas? And it’s, it’s not easy, I’ll tell you, but the team’s been I think has really done a great job just facing those brutal facts, understanding how we pivot, how we innovate and, and move forward and you know, just really proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish, in particular with positioning Oro as, as, as they have

Grayson Brulte: I, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you, I saw that you hosted a Cars and Coffee with the team. What were some of the highlights of that?

Gil West: Well, I’m a gearhead, as you know, Grayson. So yeah, we’re, we all bring out our our cars, you know, now. probably the, the highlight I would argue is one of the cars in the, in the lobby of our headquarters, and it’s a, a 1966 Shelby GT 350 Hertz edition, a black one with a four-speed, one of I should know the number, 47 I think four-speeds built. Really rare car, dash signed by Carroll Shelby. So we all bring in our stuff, you know, and, “Hey, look at this. This is cool.” But that, that’s really the. I think that’s the show winner every time is, is that car

Grayson Brulte: It’s an iconic car by an iconic gentleman. And how would you define success at the end of the day for the ORA mobility brand?

Gil West: Well, I, you know, I kind of alluded to it, I guess. I, I, I mean, in a nutshell, I think Oro materially shapes the future of mobility similar to what Hertz historically has done with rental cars, right? So it’s kinda pay us forward, right, with Oro and the future of mobility relative to what Hertz has done, you know, over the last 100 years in the rental car business. And again, I, I think, you know, Oro has tremendous potential. We got all the necessary ingredients to be successful, so we’re part of an iconic brand. got a global footprint and infrastructure. We have all the operating skills and capabilities at scale, and the ability to own and operate large fleets. So, you know, all these assets you know, again, would be really hard to replicate. So we’re positioned to help shape the future of mobility and be that kinda connective layer, if you will.

Grayson Brulte: Over the next century, how do you want the public to, to think about Hertz? Do you want them to think as a traditional rent-a-car business, as a physical AI platform? How do you want the public to start to think about what you and the team are building at Hertz?

Gil West: I think it’s just, again, pay us, pay it forward, right? You know, I mean, if you think about the Hertz brand and it’s iconic, you know, I mean, it was. I always love, you know, if you’re a fan of the History Channel, you know, the brands that built America, Hertz is one of those, right? I mean, it’s it’s part of the history, created an industry. So I think as we think about the future, it’s how do we, again, position ourselves to be a real constructive part of the future and build things and help build the industry and the future of mobility and that, and there’s no end to that, right? I mean, that’s gonna continue presumably forever. But, you know so right now it’s you know, it’s, it’s human-driven fleets. We’re quickly moving into the autonomous age, so we clearly wanna be a part of that and that connective layer. But, you know, it, it won’t end there, right? It’s how do how do we continue as Hertz to play a future in mobility? And that’s a legacy I think that we all lead as part of the current team is, you know, how do we pay, you know, the brand that we’ve been tasked with managing forward into the future

Grayson Brulte: I’ll summarize it this way: Hertz is building the future of mobility through fleet management. The future is bright, the future autonomous, the future is Hertz. Gil Sir, thank you so much for coming back on “The Road to Autonomy.” We can’t wait to see what you continue to build at Hertz, and you know we really wanna have you back again, so looking forward to it

Gil West: Love it. Keep driving our cars one way too, Grayson. So thank you for having me. It’s always a pleasure. care

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