Getaround describes itself as the modern way to find and rent a car easily and conveniently, peer-to-peer, while also limiting the number of cars on the road, but a Chicago woman has a harrowing experience to share and a warning for others who use the platform.
NBC 5 Responds found she’s not alone, and that the popular car sharing service has been operating in Illinois with a revoked business license since Sept. 2020.
Chicagoan Becky Barron said she started using the app to make some extra money while her car was not in use, but she never thought it would end with her Nissan Rogue Sport captured on police dash-camera video, speeding down a Michigan highway.
The video, obtained by NBC 5 Responds after a Freedom of Information request, comes to a gasping conclusion when her SUV runs off the road, rolls-over, and was totaled as its occupants tried to flee from officers.
“Totaled,” Barron said, still anxious over what happened. “It’s a total loss.”
Barron had decided to rent her car out using Getaround last November, and hadn’t had any problems until the early morning hours of Thanksgiving.
While she was asleep, a Michigan man was pre-screened and approved by Getaround to rent Barron’s SUV, and from the moment she awoke, she said the timing of the rental left her skeptical.
“I was pretty convinced at that time my car was being stolen,” she said.
The reason for Barron’s skepticism lied with the reservation times and location of her SUV. According to the Getaround platform, the man’s reservation was scheduled to end at 8:30 a.m., but by 8 a.m., Getaround’s GPS showed the SUV was more than 150 miles away in Michigan.
Barron said she immediately called Getaround to report her fears, hoping they would act immediately. Instead, she said they gave the driver the benefit of a doubt, and extended the reservation window, even though the driver hadn’t requested it.
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“Not only am I frustrated and upset, but I’m completely panicked,” she explained.
Another three hours later, Barron’s SUV was tracked to a gas station in Michigan where the engine was turned off. This time, a Getaround employee assured her they were on it, and that their technology would make things right.
“They install a device on your car that allows them to track it and remotely disable it,” Becky said. “So since the vehicle was no longer in motion, they were able to disable the car.”
At that point, Getaround hired a tow truck and repo team to recover the car, but the company told NBC 5 that when the tow and repo teams arrived, they felt “threatened” by the thieves.
Fearing for their safety, they left Barron’s SUV where they found it. But no one called the police.
“At that point, instead of calling the police or taking any further action, even alerting me, Getaround just let it go. So then [the thieves are] able to start the car again,” Barron said.
At that point, thieves disabled Getaround’s security system, and the SUV disappeared off the map.
Barron ended up filing a police report days later, after she realized Getaround had failed to do so.
Then, nearly a week after the car was first stolen, police out of Royal Oak, Michigan, said they spotted her SUV swerving with its lights off, and a police chase ensued, ending with the vehicle rolling-over: a complete loss.
After the roll-over crash, Royal Oak Police Department records show neither the driver nor the two passengers in the vehicle matched the person who had originally rented Barron’s vehicle on the Getaround platform.
The whole experience left her bewildered and angry.
“I trusted this company with something of value, with my well-being, my livelihood and this is what happened,” Barron said.
Getaround declined NBC 5 Responds’ request for an on-camera interview.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the company said Barron’s experience is an outlier.
“While we recognize the unfortunate nature of [Barron’s] experience, it is not typical of a Getaround host where a safe and reliable car sharing experience is the norm,” spokesperson Keil Decker told NBC 5.
Getaround explained that the person who rented Barron’s car had a valid Michigan driver’s license, and passed their screening process. Michigan Secretary of State records show the renter did have a valid driver’s license at the time of the rental.
That renter has since been “banned from Getaround for multiple policy violations,” the company said.
After Barron’s car was taken, the company said it “fully complied with Illinois law on reporting vehicle theft in light of the facts as we know them.”
But Getaround did not report the theft to any law enforcement agencies.
When asked for clarification on this, the company said it requires hosts to report these thefts, not the company itself.
“Local police jurisdictions have been non-responsive to Getaround if we attempt to report a theft, and will require the host - as the owner of the vehicle - to file the official police report,” the company said. “The host is the one who must file the report.”
While Barron’s theft was not reported by Getaround to police, there have been other thefts in Chicago.
In the last two years, NBC 5 Responds found at least 11 other thefts where hosts reported to police that thieves had disabled Getaround’s security system and stolen their vehicles.
When asked about the thefts, a spokesperson for Getaround told us, “the safety of its guests and hosts is a paramount priority and it continually invests in leading edge security measures.”
Getaround launched in Chicago in 2015, billing itself as an environmentally friendly way to limit the number of cars on the roads.
Consumer advocates said the service has its perks, but drivers and renters need to know the risks.
“If you’re in a city that offers this, you can find a car you can rent for a few hours,” Kevin Brasler of Consumer Checkbook explained. “But, if there is damage to your car, if it’s in an accident, if it gets stolen, you're going to be out [of] that car.”
Getaround’s Terms of Service spells that out clearly, stating: “any reservations made by a user, guest, and/or host will be made at their own risk.”
In 2020, NBC News found vehicles rented through peer-to-peer apps, including Getaround, had been connected to a wide-variety of crimes and had faced scorn from regulators, including the District of Colombia’s Attorney General’s office.
Getaround said it’s always working to improve its security systems for all users.
Recently, the company said it has implemented a new screening process for renters that it hopes will decrease the chances of vehicles stolen through its platform.
The company said, “Getaround has implemented 'Getaround TrustScore,' a next-generation AI model that better determines risky behavior on trips, which ultimately helps protect hosts and improves the quality of renters in our marketplace.”
Despite operating in the Chicago area since 2015, NBC 5 Responds found Getaround’s state business license was revoked on Sept. 29, 2020.
The Illinois Secretary of State’s office said the license was revoked for “failure to file an annual report and failure to pay related fees as required by law.”
When asked about this, Getaround said it was “actively working on the reinstatement of our state business license to remedy this issue.”
For Barron’s totaled SUV, Getaround told NBC 5 it paid off her lease, reimbursed her for taxes and registration fees she had paid, and offered her an unprecedented $3,200 extra in recognition of the unique circumstances she faced.
Barron feels Getaround needs to improve its security systems for all users, and those users need to know the risks.
“I feel strongly that they need to revise their safety measures because I don’t want anybody else to go through what I’ve had to go through,” Barron said.
