Turo, which investigators say was used to acquire the vehicles involved in the attack in New Orleans and explosion in Las Vegas, was emerging as an alternative car-rental service.
For nearly 15 years, Turo, the car rental app investigators say was used in the deadly attack in New Orleans and the vehicle explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, quietly grew as an alternative to traditional rental services like Hertz and Enterprise.
The company was founded as RelayRides in 2010, and rebranded to Turo in 2015. Over 3.5 million people have booked a vehicle through Turo in the past year, according to a company filing. As of September, the app had 350,000 vehicle listings in more than 16,000 cities.
Now Turo, which last year was considering an initial public offering on Wall Street, is facing uncomfortable attention as a perhaps coincidental link between the two incidents.
The app functions similarly to Airbnb, where “hosts” can put their cars on the Turo marketplace to be rented by users.
For some users, the app is a cheaper alternative to rental fleet companies found at airports, with many vehicles available for under $50 a day. Others use the app to rent novelty cars for higher prices, like classic automobiles, high-end sports cars or Tesla Cybertrucks, such as the one used in the explosion in Las Vegas.