Use AI to Find Your Next Rental Car With Turo’s ChatGPT App

ChatGPT can now help you find and book a rental car thanks to a new Turo integration that launched Monday. The Turo app for ChatGPT allows you to just tell the AI chatbot what you’re looking for — from pickup location and dates to number of seats, EV preference and more — using natural language, and be presented with real Turo rental cars, advice and links directly to the Turo website to book.

Turo is a peer-to-peer marketplace that lets private owners rent out their personal vehicles to travelers and locals. I like to think of it as the “Airbnb of cars” or drive-it-yourself Uber. Unlike traditional rental agencies that own and maintain large fleets of cars, Turo merely provides the tech, insurance and support to connect vehicle hosts with guest drivers. Turo has proven to be a popular alternative to the airport rental counter thanks to its more varied selection of unique car models (including luxury or high-tech vehicles), competitive pricing, and the convenience of having certain vehicles delivered.

And now, it has a ChatGPT integration. You can access the new Turo app within ChatGPT by first searching for and then adding Turo to the list of available agents in ChatGPT’s Apps menu. Once connected, adding “@Turo” to any chat with the AI bot will trigger the new functionality.

I fired up ChatGPT after setting it up for myself and typed the prompt: “@Turo, I’m going to be landing in Atlanta on Friday and would like to rent an EV for the weekend with enough range to make it to Augusta. What’s available?”

The app replied with listings of vehicles currently available to rent near the airport with enough range to make the approximately 300-mile round trip with as little as one quick top-up. Each listing featured photos, price estimates (including tax and fees), star ratings and the number of times each car had been rented. 

Clicking on a listing took me straight to the Turo website (or app on mobile) to complete the booking. I also tried asking for “an EV near my home that seats six people” and “a hybrid that would be useful for moving,” and found the results to be adequate. 

In addition to the listings, ChatGPT and Turo provided details (like range) about each car as well as pros and cons, such as Tesla’s plentiful Superchargers between Atlanta and Augusta or the Kia EV6’s very fast charging speed. Overall, the new functionality looks like a fairly convenient and decent starting point for someone who knows nothing about cars to choose a rental.

Turo’s app for ChatGPT is the latest example of AI’s rapid advance into every aspect of the automotive industry, from natural language AI assistants in the dashboard to AI-powered inspection of rental car returns. 

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI last year, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)