An on-line automotive rental service is beneath scrutiny after it was utilized in two incidents Wednesday.
The platform, Turo, is named an “Airbnb of cars,” because it permits particular person automotive house owners to hire out their automobiles. Vehicle house owners, often called “hosts,” can submit automobiles to Turo’s web site, the place folks can then hire them, with funds made by the platform.
Turo acknowledged it was utilized in each incidents in an online statement posted Wednesday.
“It is with a heavy coronary heart that we verify that this morning’s horrific assault in New Orleans and this afternoon’s Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas each concerned automobiles rented on Turo,” the corporate stated. “Our ideas and prayers are with the victims and their households.”
It stated it didn’t imagine the people who could have rented the autos concerned within the incidents had felony backgrounds “that will have recognized them as a safety menace,” and that it was not conscious of any info that signifies the 2 incidents had been associated.
Turo stated in a press release launched Thursday afternoon that the automobiles’ renters had legitimate driver’s licenses, clear background checks and had been honorably discharged from the U.S. army.
“They might have boarded any aircraft, checked right into a resort, or rented a automotive or truck from a conventional automobile rental chain,” Turo stated. “We don’t imagine these two people would have been flagged by anybody — together with Big Rental or regulation enforcement.”
Investigators had stated earlier that Turo was used to hire a pickup truck that plowed through New Orleans revelers early Wednesday and procure a Tesla Cybertruck that was filled with explosives and burst into flames outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
Authorities have preliminarily stated the service’s use in each incidents is a coincidence. On Thursday afternoon, authorities stated there was not a definitive hyperlink between the 2 incidents.
Turo, beforehand often called RelayRides, was created in 2009. It got here of age in the course of the broader increase in peer-to-peer startups, like Airbnb and Uber, that sought to disrupt many conventional markets together with leases of homes, cars and even swimming swimming pools.
But with that disruption got here issues about safety. For years, peer-to-peer platforms like Turo have faced criticisms after cars have been stolen to be used for nefarious purposes. The corporations have beforehand responded that such incidents are exceedingly uncommon. However, over an roughly four-month interval between October 2019 and February 2020, NBC News discovered some 49 reviews of motorcar thefts in Washington, D.C., concerned automobiles rented from Turo or its rival, Getaround, representing 6% of all incidents in the course of the interval.
As of Sept. 30, Turo had roughly 150,000 energetic hosts worldwide, with 350,000 energetic automobile listings and three.5 million energetic friends taking part on its market, according to a company filing.
Turo’s web site tells hosts that they’re “protected” in trusting the platform as a result of Turo “display screen(s) every visitor,” so hosts might be “assured after they hand over” their keys.
