Waymo Hits the Road to Address Needs of AZCEND
If you’re in the East Valley, chances are you may have caught a glimpse of the newly wrapped blue autonomous driving Waymo Via vehicles as they are on a mission to help AZCEND, a Chandler-based nonprofit. Part of the Waymo Via fleet, these cars are meant for deliveries only and have been key in helping several organizations get goods from point A to point B.
Every Wednesday, the blue vehicles pull up to AZCEND, where volunteers load boxes of food that are then delivered autonomously by the Waymo vehicle to the Gilbert Senior Center.
AZCEND serves thousands of individuals and households in the East Valley, including varying types of food distribution to the community’s most vulnerable residents. AZCEND needed to scale its meal deliveries by 110 percent throughout the pandemic as its base of those in need continued to evolve. Waymo stepped in to donate its fully autonomous driving technology to help transport meals from AZCEND’s Chandler food bank to the Gilbert Senior Center.
“The need for our Meals on Wheels has increased exponentially during the pandemic and its partnerships with companies like Waymo that enable us to do what we do to support people in our community in need. Since our partnership with Waymo began, they have transported over 2,000 meals for seniors,” said Trinity Donovan, CEO of AZCEND.
