A San Francisco Uber driver is making $200K a year selling jewelry out of his Camry

Halfway through the decade, you could make a good case for Uber and its ridesharing buddies as full-fledged travel revolutionaries. Great cities and entire nations have wept – and fought – for convention as support for the ridesharing model has swelled, even if gradually, nearly everywhere it's been dispatched. If that's not enough, don't forget that Uber helped decide the outcome of this year's Super Bowl.

If that's still not enough, let the story of San Francisco Uber driver Gavin Escolar turn your heart into metaphorical jelly. In a recent CBS San Francisco segment, Escolar reveals that he made over $200,000 last year combining his presumably good driving (Uber requires drivers to maintain a 4.6 rating out of 5) with his long-burning passion for making colorful, locally inspired jewelry. According to numbers at Glassdoor, that's nearly 150% what a Senior Software Engineer at Uber pulls in. Escolar also revealed, with great enthusiasm, that he's "living the life [he] want[s] to live," heartwarming news for even the most jaded Senior Software Engineer.

[aolon ]

It was the observant eye and curiosity of a passenger from Nashville that first got the wheels turning in Escolar's head, but his own ingenuity ultimately transformed his Camry into a moving jewelry shop – assisted, as the segment makes clear, by his comically charismatic energy. Passengers choosing Uber when he's nearby will find strategically placed rings, necklaces and other Escolar treasures shimmering about the vehicle, suddenly available for purchase from the maker. It's kind like Cash Cab, only all the cash goes to Escolar.

It's cash well-deserved, of course, and in any case it's hard not to be happy for a guy finding unexpected success doing the thing he loves most. On behalf of Gavin Escolar, thank you, Uber.