Car rental app Turo grew quietly before ties to deadly US New Year’s Day incidents

More than 3.5 million people have booked a vehicle through Turo in the past year, according to a company filing. Now Turo is facing uncomfortable attention as a perhaps coincidental link between the two incidents. — Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash

SAN FRANCISCO: 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. More than 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.