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Gruesome murder of a Mexican teenager is exposing the risks of ride-sharing apps

3 pointsby victorhnover 7 years ago

1 comment

floatingatollover 7 years ago
To summarize the entire article in one sentence: &quot;Ride sharing is risky, but we decline to evaluate whether it&#x27;s more or less risky than cabs.&quot;<p>This article misses an opportunity to explore the crime rate in Mexican cabs with the crime rate in Mexican ride-shares, and instead beats the same dead horse as every other &quot;scary ride sharing headline to get people to click for ad revenue&quot; writeup over the past few years.<p>Bad things happen. If you don&#x27;t present how likely they are to happen — relative to a contextually appropriate baseline figure — when you report about them, you&#x27;re just using scare tactics to drum up views to pay your bills.<p>&quot;Uber rider is hit by lightning. Are ride-shares safe?&quot; is an example of how NOT to report a lightning strike of a rideshare passenger, yet I guarantee you that&#x27;s what every crappy press agency in the world will lead with given the chance.<p>&quot;Passenger in car-for-hire hit by lightning.&quot; is much more accurate, contains no less relevant information — lightning doesn&#x27;t care if it&#x27;s Uber or Lyft or a Taxi — and is vastly less interesting for people to click on.<p>Don&#x27;t get suckered in by these articles.