Zapata AI, Andretti INDYCAR Gear Up for AI Race Day Strategy

Zapata Computing, Inc., an industrial generative AI software company, and Andretti INDYCAR, a motorsports organization, announce plans for their third NTT INDYCAR SERIES season together to build on last season’s progress through engineering and technology innovation, the companies report.

The focal point of their work jointly this season is applying Zapata AI’s Industrial Generative AI solutions and expertise to help give the Andretti INDYCAR team a competitive advantage in winning races, according to the companies. Working trackside, in the Race Analytics Command Center mobile engineering unit, and virtually from their different locations, the engineering and competition teams plan to use Zapata AI Sense—running on the Company’s Orquestra platform—and other tooling to build an improved technology stack for specific use cases, including race strategy and data signal generation.

“As we head into our third season working with Zapata AI on our INDYCAR program, we’re eager to continue using their expertise to fine-tune the performance on race weekends,” says Michael Andretti, CEO and chairman of Andretti Global. “The goal, as it has been since day one of this relationship, is to work shoulder to shoulder with the Zapata AI team to turn technological innovation for specific use cases into ‘real’ results on the track.”

Highlights from the 2023 season include:

• Virtual Sensors: The teams leveraged generative AI to generate real-time, accurate data for a race variable that would not have been measurable with physical sensors otherwise.
• Decision-making: Implementation of Zapata AI’s Industrial Generative AI solutions was a key enabling technology for fast predictions to support decision-making using livestream and historic data.
• Data infrastructure integration and enhancement: The Zapata AI and Andretti teams explored data-driven opportunities in these areas.
• Analytic and predictive capabilities (on and off the race track): These capabilities were enhanced with innovations in database integration, DevOps tools for live data processing and monitoring, and generative and general AI model integration. All of this was enabled by on premise edge computing and adapted to Andretti's needs.

“We are excited to keep learning from Andretti and continue our joint, tangible progress on resolving the technology challenges we face,” says Christopher Savoie, CEO and co-founder of Zapata AI. “Industrial generative AI has the potential to enable us to generate the best possible solutions based on the available data to optimize critical factors, such as how to keep fuel consumption at a minimum while sticking to a pitstop strategy and creating ‘virtual’ sensors to predict the slip angle of a car as it corners at high speeds."

“Their Orquestra platform has been an ideal environment for managing our data and integrating the most applicable open-source tools available, in addition to benchmarking and testing changes we make to the architecture," says Eric Bretzman, technical director at Andretti Global.

Looking ahead to the 2024 season some of the highest-impact initiatives are expected to include:

• Streaming data and machine learning applications: real-time analytics based on live streaming data can streamline decision-making processes and provide insights that can be immediately acted upon
• Predictive capabilities for lap times, yellow flag occurrences and tire degradation
• Improved virtual sensor simulation with generative AI, with inclusion of more track-related and other static features
• Inclusion of data and model performance monitoring tools for live stream monitoring capabilities.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.