Turo Under Fire After Two Users Commit Acts of Violence
A Heinous Crime Committed Using Turo Rented Vehicles
In a shocking turn of events, two individuals rented cars from Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform, and used them to commit acts of violence earlier this week. The first incident involved a military veteran driving a Ford F-150 Lightning into a crowd of people in New Orleans, resulting in the deaths of at least 15 individuals. The second incident occurred in Las Vegas, where an active-duty Green Beret rented a Tesla Cybertruck and parked it in front of the Trump International Hotel before allegedly blowing it up. Tragically, the driver died by suicide.
Turo’s Response to the Incident
On Friday, Turo’s chief executive, Andre Haddad, released a statement expressing his outrage at how the two individuals who perpetrated these heinous crimes abused their platform. He noted that Turo is working around the clock to determine how the platform could have been misused in such a manner.
The Question of Prevention
The question on everyone’s mind is: how could Turo or any similar platform have prevented this? With millions of people using car-sharing platforms like Turo, it’s crucial to understand the measures that can be taken to prevent such incidents from occurring.
How Does Turo Screen Renters?
Turo has been described as a platform similar to Airbnb for cars, where vehicle owners can rent out their vehicles for extra money or even as a full-time business. Many of Turo’s hosts rent out three or more vehicles on the platform at a time. To address concerns about safety, Turo claims to screen each renter through a proprietary multi-layer, data-science-based trust and safety algorithm called the Turo Risk Score.
What Does the Turo Risk Score Entail?
According to Turo, the company uses 50 internal and external data sources to build, maintain, and improve on the Turo Risk Score. However, it’s unclear what this entails or whether Turo performs normal criminal background checks. TechCrunch has requested clarification from Turo, but so far, there has been no response.
A History of Controversy
Over the years, some bad actors have managed to slip through the cracks, embroiling Turo in controversy after cars on its platform were found to be used for human and drug trafficking. Furthermore, people who claim to be hosts regularly post on the Turo subreddit page about their cars being rented out to individuals with criminal histories.
The Challenge of Screening Renters
Even if Turo’s background checks were foolproof, the two perpetrators of the crimes that occurred this week in New Orleans and Las Vegas had valid driver’s licenses, clean criminal backgrounds, and were decorated U.S. military servicemembers. As Haddad pointed out, these individuals could have easily rented a car or truck from any traditional vehicle rental chain.
The Response from Turo
Turo has facilitated 27 million trips over the past 12 years, with fewer than 0.10% resulting in serious incidents like vehicle theft. In light of this week’s events, Haddad noted that aside from investing in improving its risk score algorithm, Turo has assembled a team of former law enforcement professionals to help assess future risk.
A Call for Collaboration
Haddad emphasized that Turo is consulting with national security and counterterrorism experts to learn more about how it can get even better at preventing such incidents. The goal is to play a part in helping prevent anything like this from happening again in the future.
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