Peer-to-peer car rental app Turo is in the spotlight after it confirmed the two vehicles used in deadly New Year’s Day attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans were rented on its platform.
Turo said it was devastated by the events and that it was actively partnering with law enforcement to share any useful information in its investigation. The private company also said it had no reason to believe the suspects renting vehicles on the platform were a threat.
“Thinking about how egregiously the two individuals who perpetrated these heinous crimes abused our platform, I’m outraged,” Turo CEO Andre Haddad stated in a blog post on Friday. “These individuals had valid driver’s licenses, clean criminal backgrounds, and … one was an active duty Green Beret. They could have boarded any plane, checked into any hotel, or rented a car or truck from any traditional vehicle rental chain. We do not believe these two individuals would have been flagged by anyone — including law enforcement.”
San Francisco-based Turo (originally named RelayRides) began as a peer-to-peer car-sharing service in 2010. The company operates an Airbnb-like service where people (known as “hosts”) can rent out their cars to other users of the platform.
To be clear, Turo does not own any of the cars on its service. The company has since expanded across the US and in some global locations and raised around $500 million, according to Crunchbase. The company filed its first initial S-1 form to go public in 2022 and has updated it periodically, though it has not issued a target date for its initial public offering (IPO).
Renting on Turo is relatively easy for users. All Turo requires is a valid driver’s license and home address. Interestingly, users must be over the age of 18 (major car rental operators require renters to be above the age of 25). Turo offers various insurance plans for host vehicles, as well as liability insurance for users.
Turo operates like traditional rental car operators, but its asset-light business model is the main differentiator.
There are no physical rental locations or even kiosks where people rent vehicles. It’s all done by connecting hosts with users on the Turo platform.
Turo says it “may” ask for additional photos and other information to check personal data such as credit reports, auto insurance scores, or criminal background checks for its users.
In its latest S-1 filing from November, the company revealed that by the end of September 2024, Turo hosts had earned $4.8 billion from rentals and that there were 350,000 vehicles available for rent on Turo across 16,000 cities.
