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Comment by JoeAltmaier | Hacker News Reader

Hm. The 'Uber' angle is apparently irrelevant to the storey? He's also an insurance broker. Why not say "Insurance salesman goes on killing spree"?

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He was actually picking up and dropping off fares in between his shootings.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/multiple-people-killed-in...

That's speculation, right?

A girl – whose name is not being used by the Free Press -- on Saturday posted on Facebook at 5:33 p.m. that her boyfriend was picked up by an Uber driver named Jason who was driving erratically, blowing through a stop sigh and sideswiping another car. That post came up just about a half hour before the killing spree started.

She posted a photo of the man, who matches the police mug shot of Dalton, and said he was driving a Chevrolet Equinox SUV. Kalamazoo Gazette photos later show police searching an Equinox.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/02/21/ka...

...and when did he last sell Insurance? Why is this relevant? Because 'some girl' scooped the press?

A big part of Uber's brand / marketing is "safety" - as in, we know who is driving you, we did a background check, we track the exact route taken, etc. So this would seem to undermine that messaging.

Did this guy have a history of shootings, or was this his first time?

Very relevant. You use the service that you trust and are in the unusual position to be putting your life in their hands without anyone observing what happens.

This gets to the heart of Uber's business model and how much collective trust there is in drivers with whom the company has essentially zero relationship with and yet is supposed to keep you safe in the most dangerous activity that humans engage in.

Apparently he drove Uber fares in between random drive-by murders. We can all have our own opinions about what people should care about in terms of exciting and lurid news but let's face it that's a seriously catchy headline.

For the clicks, of course.

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