AI negotiator successfully haggles down the price of a car thousands of dollars
SMRTR summary
A tireless artificial intelligence program is haggling down car prices thousands of dollars below sticker, all while human buyers stay comfortably anonymous. CarEdge's AI negotiator, launched in July, has already worked with over 2,000 paying customers.
"Consumers don't want to get screwed," explains Zach Shefska, the 30-year-old CEO who founded CarEdge with his father in 2020. "It's not even necessarily about getting the best price; it's just not wanting to be taken advantage of."
For $40, the system creates temporary contact information and negotiates directly with dealerships. In one case, it bargained a Toyota RAV4 down from $37,356 to $35,600.
The AI's advantage comes from analyzing six years of pricing data across hundreds of thousands of transactions. Unlike humans who might feel pressured during negotiations, the AI remains methodical and persistent.
Perhaps most appealing to many customers is the privacy protection. The system shields buyers from spam calls and emails until they're ready to finalize a purchase, flipping the traditional power dynamic of car buying.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Hacker News.
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