Waymo orders thousands of driverless cars for public debut

As it prepares to make its fully driverless cars (without a safety driver in the front seat) available for rides to the public this year, Waymo says it has ordered thousands of additional Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.

Why it matters: The self-driving car race continues at full speed. General Motors' Cruise recently said it will deploy its cars to the public in 2019, while ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft have been testing rides with passengers on smaller scales.

• The fully driverless car rides will first be publicly available in Phoenix, and later in more cities. Waymo began testing its driverless cars there in November.
• So far, Fiat Chrysler has provided Waymo with 600 such cars.

Go deeper: Axios took a ride in one of Waymo's self-driving minivans at its secret testing facility.