Car rental startup Turo’s security team cuts vacation short after deadly attack

(Bloomberg) — Some employees on car rental startup Turo Inc.’s trust and safety team have interrupted their vacations to monitor and respond to the aftermath of the deadly attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In both incidents, the FBI said, drivers used cars they purchased on the platform to commit violence, but the incidents appear to be unrelated. Both attacks, which occurred on Wednesday, highlight how the rental market can be exploited to cheaply and easily procure large vehicles that can be used as weapons. The incidents also caused a public relations setback for San Francisco-based Turo, which had been hoping to sell stock in an initial public offering, and prompted it to defend its procedures for vetting customers.

Turo, which launched in 2010 as RelayRides, uses a proprietary algorithm to screen drivers for risk and calculate appropriate fees. The Turo risk score, which has been in use since 2020, evaluates 50 data points for each driver to determine fees and will be refined with further trips, the company said in a regulatory filing in September. Most renters on Turo are “instantly approved” after entering their driver’s license and other information, the company’s website says.

The San Francisco-based startup provides 3.5 million users with access to 350,000 vehicles. Turo’s business is similar to other marketplaces like Airbnb and eBay, which don’t build hotels or buy goods themselves, but instead build technology platforms to connect buyers and sellers. Turo aims to apply the same “asset-light” business model to the car rental industry, where traditional businesses own vehicles and rent them out to customers.

If anyone wants to rent a Tesla Inc. Cybertruck, the vehicle used in the Las Vegas attacks, there are 31 options in the city next week with prices as low as $120 per day. Two Ford F-150 Lightning trucks, the vehicle used in the New Orleans attacks, are listed in the Houston area where the attackers rented the vehicles. Both cost under $100 per day on Turo.

Turo did not respond to inquiries from Bloomberg News about the Turo risk scores of each driver involved in the attacks that killed 15 people and injured dozens more on New Year’s Day in New Orleans and Las Vegas.

“We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate both incidents,” a company spokesman said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “We do not believe the tenants involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks have criminal backgrounds.” , will not regard them as a security threat.”

Although Turo plans to go public, it has been waiting for years for a more favorable market. The startup raised money from investors in 2019 at a valuation of more than $1 billion, making it a sharing economy unicorn. The company has raised $528 million from investors including Silicon Valley venture capital firms as well as IAC Inc., American Express Co. and Liberty Mutual Group, according to PitchBook data. Turo had revenue of $722 million in the nine months ended in September, up 8% from the same period in 2023, according to a regulatory filing in September.

“Our goal is to continue to grow the business as quickly as possible,” CEO Andre Haddad told CNBC in September 2024.

But against all odds, Touro’s plans have yet to come to fruition. Last year, Getaround Inc., a competitor that offers similar services, laid off 30% of its staff, saying its business faced “significant challenges.”

Turo said in its listing filing that one of the risks to Turo’s success as a public company is the activities of its hosts or guests. Turro wrote that theft, vehicle damage or other safety issues could “harm our reputation, increase our operating costs and have a material adverse effect on our business.”

—With help from Anne Vandermey.

(Updated with Turo CEO’s recent comments in ninth paragraph. Earlier version corrected the year Getaround cut its workforce by 30%.)

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