What to know about Turo, the app both trucks used in New Orleans and Las Vegas incidents came from

New York (CNN) — This week’s deadly incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas have thrust Turo, a car rental platform, into the spotlight, after the cars used in both attacks were rented through its marketplace.

Turo calls itself a “peer-to-peer car sharing service,” meaning users can rent cars through the app directly from their owners, as opposed to traditional rental companies like Hertz and Avis, which own the rental fleets themselves directly.

Think Airbnb, but for cars. And although it’s been around for years — it launched in several US markets in 2010 and went national two years later — it gained popularity starting in 2021, when a car shortage caused prices to rent from traditional rental services to spike.

The attacks could be a major black eye for Turo, which has been angling for what could be a lucrative initial public offering. The company previously acknowledged the risk of financial and brand damage from fatalities and other incidents that could be caused by vehicles rented on its platform.

In a statement on Wednesday, the company confirmed with a “heavy heart” that vehicles rented on the platform were involved in the two attacks.

“Our trust and safety team is actively partnering with law enforcement authorities to share any information that could be helpful in their investigations,” Turo said in a statement. “We do not believe that either renter had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat, and we are not currently aware of any information that indicates the two incidents are related. Turo is dedicated to fostering a trustworthy marketplace.”

In a new statement on Thursday, a Turo spokesperson added that the individuals who carried out the attacks “had valid driver’s licenses, clean background checks, and were honorably discharged from the US military. They could have boarded any plane, checked into a hotel, or rented a car or truck from a traditional vehicle rental chain. We do not believe these two individuals would have been flagged by anyone — including Big Rental or law enforcement.”

Here’s what we know about the company and what the attacks could mean for its business.

How does Turo work?

Turo calls itself the “world’s largest car sharing marketplace,” and says it had 350,000 active vehicle listings and 3.5 million “guest” renters on the platform across five countries as of the end of September, according to a securities filing for its planned IPO.

The company doesn’t own any rental cars itself. Instead, Turo lets car owners list their vehiclesn for rent by other people, and the company takes a commission from each deal. That means that unlike traditional rental car companies, Turo doesn’t need to shell out to purchase and maintain a fleet of cars. And it often doesn’t face similar regulations and consumer protections of a traditional car rental company, nor do the people renting out those cars through Turo.

The marketplace boasts a broader selection of cars than the economy cars that dominate many traditional rental fleets, including luxury vehicles like those from Porsche, Ferrari and the Tesla Cybertruck that was exploded outside a Trump Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

While there are some owners who rent out cars they otherwise would be driving themselves, many of the people renting out vehicles on the platform own vehicles with the intention of renting them out. Renters need a driver’s license, validated through the app, and must be 18 years old in the US, but they do not need personal car insurance, similar to traditional rental companies.

The company says that it uses “a proprietary multi-layer, data-science-based trust and safety process” to screen each renter and that it applies a “risk score” to each booking. “As of September 30, 2024, we have collected data from over 90 million booked days, 27 million trips, 8.6 billion miles driven, through 12 years of operating history, less than 0.10% of Turo trips end with a serious incident such as a vehicle theft,” a spokesperson said Thursday.

Turo’s business grew rapidly in the wake of the pandemic — as travelers began getting back on roads, but didn’t want to pay high prices from traditional rental car companies. In 2021, the company’s revenue grew 213% year-over-year; in the first nine months of 2024, its revenue grew 8% compared to the same period in the prior year to $722 million, according to the securities filing.

Turo initially indicated it planned to go public in 2022 with the stock ticker “TURO” and has regularly updated its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission, although it is not clear when the company intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

The risk factor section of Turo’s prospectus acknowledges that, “We may be found to be subject to liability for the activities of hosts and guests, which could harm our reputation, increase our operating costs, and materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.”

And it explicitly acknowledges the company’s exposure to the risk of cars being rented on its platform and used for crime.

“We and our hosts and guests may further be subject to claims of liability based on traffic or motor vehicle violations or accidents, fatalities, injuries, property damage, theft or organized crime rings, or other similar incidents that are caused during or after a reservation booked on our platform,” the document states.

And even if, hypothetically, the company isn’t liable, the costs of such claims could still be staggering, the filing said.

“Even if these claims do not result in liability to us or our hosts and guests, we could incur significant costs in investigating and defending against them, and such claims, if made public, could deter hosts or guests from continuing to use our platform,” it states.

The company will almost certainly be on the hook to provide some compensation to the owners of the vehicles used in the two attacks.

Turo says that in the United States, it will reimburse hosts for eligible repairs up to the cash value of their car or $200,000, whichever is less. The host’s deductible depends on what percentage of the earnings from rides booked using their car they elect to receive, according to the company’s website.

Turo did not respond to requests for comment.

All Turo bookings also include up to $750,000 in third-party liability coverage, provided by insurance company Travelers, to cover bodily injury and property damage to third-parties, with the option for guests to add on supplemental coverage for an additional charge.

Travelers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN about its plans surrounding compensating the victims of the two attacks, which together killed at least 16 and injured dozens.

–CNN’s Chris Isidore and Eric Levenson contributed to this report

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