The vehicles used in two separate incidents, the deadly attack in New Orleans and the explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, were rented through the same app, a peer-to-peer service called Turo, the company said .
Authorities are investigating several parallels between the incidents, including that both trucks involved, a Ford pickup truck in New Orleans and a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas, were rented from Turo and occurred on New Year’s Day. Both also involved US-born military personnel who served in Afghanistan around the same time period.
But on Thursday, an FBI official, Christopher Raia, said that at this point, there are “no definitive link“between the two facts.
In an email to CBS News, a Turo spokesperson said the company is “actively cooperating with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents.”
They added: “We do not believe that any of the tenants involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had criminal records that would have identified them as a security threat.”
Turo works similarly to Airbnb, but with cars instead of houses or apartments. Car owners who are not using their vehicles can rent them out to others through the app, which handles screening, billing and other services. In some cases, people have become “professional hosts” by renting fleets of cars through Turo, seconds to the presentation of a company.
In a separate email to CBS MoneyWatch, a Turo spokesperson said, “We are outraged by the misuse of our marketplace by the two individuals who perpetrated these acts.”
Here’s what you need to know about Turo.
How many people use Turo?
Turo, which started in 2009, had about 150,000 active hosts who rented about 350,000 vehicles as of Sept. 30, according to the company’s filing. About 3.5 million people rented these cars in the 12-month period to the end of September, he added.
The car rental service operates in 16,000 cities in the US, Australia, France, the UK and Canada.
How do you rent a car in Turo?
Turo says that to use its service, people need an email address, a Google Account or an Apple ID, and a valid driver’s license. Renters must also provide a home address and payment card.
Customers must be at least 18 years old to rent a car at Turo, or over 25 for the more expensive vehicles. For example, to rent a “luxury” car (those valued between $45,000 and $85,000), drivers must be over 25 years old. “Super luxury” cars, or those worth more than $85,000, are limited to people over 30.
Does Turo monitor people who rent cars?
About his web siteTuro says “We may ask for additional photos and information and/or may check your personal and/or business credit report, auto insurance score, and criminal history to verify your account.”
The man who drove the Ford truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges related to driving under the influence (DUI). seconds on CNN.
In the state of Louisiana, a felony DUI is considered a felony on third and subsequent convictions, seconds in Louisiana Court Records, although first-time DUI offenders may face felony charges in cases involving a death or violation of child endangerment laws.
Turo also says it relies on its own “risk score” to evaluate potential tenants, which is based on “over 50 data inputs,” such as information submitted by customers, as well as parameters set by the property owner. car
“Each Turo tenant is monitored through a proprietary multi-layered security and trust process based on data science,” a Turo spokesperson wrote to CBS MoneyWatch.
“These individuals in question had valid driver’s licenses, clean background checks and were discharged from the US military,” the spokesman added. “They could have boarded any plane, checked into a hotel, or rented a car or truck from a traditional car rental chain. We do not believe these two individuals were flagged by anyone, including Big Rental or law enforcement “.
Who are the men who rented the cars used in the attacks?
The driver of the New Orleans attack, Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen from Texas, was a US Army veteran who lived in Houston. The FBI said it released several videos before the attack proclaiming its support for ISIS.
Jabbar rented a Ford electric pickup truck from Turo in Houston on December 30, 2024 and drove the vehicle to New Orleans on December 31. On January 1, he jumped the barriers set up on Bourbon Street, which included patrol cars and law enforcement, before plowing into the sidewalk, according to police officers. The attack killed at least 14 people and injured dozens.
In the second incident on January 1, Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an active-duty US Army Special Forces intelligence sergeant who was serving in Germany but was on leave in Colorado at the time of the incident, he rented a Tesla Cybertruck from Turo.
That Cybertruck, a 2024 model that had been rented in Colorado, stopped at the glass front doors of the Trump Hotel Wednesday morning, officials said. Smoke started coming out of the vehicle and then there was a huge explosion. Canisters of gasoline and camping fuel and large firework mortars were found in the back of the vehicle after the explosion, which occurred about 15 seconds after the vehicle pulled up in front of the building.
The Cybertruck explosion, which is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism, killed the driver of the car and injured seven people outside the vehicle.
Officials have not been able to confirm the identity of the body which is “burned beyond recognitionSheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said at a briefing Thursday. Investigators said Livelsberger’s military ID, passport and credit cards were found in the vehicle, along with several weapons of fire
Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X, his social media app, that the structure of the vehicle helped limit the damage.
“The chosen evil chose the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack,” he wrote moss “The cybertruck actually contained the blast and directed the blast upwards. The glass doors to the lobby didn’t even shatter.”