Zapata AI and Andretti INDYCAR Gear Up to Apply Industrial Generative AI to Race Day Strategy and Analytics 

BOSTON and INDIANAPOLIS, March 7, 2024 -- Zapata Computing, Inc. (Zapata AI) and Andretti INDYCAR today announced plans for their third NTT INDYCAR SERIES season together as they look to build on last season’s progress through engineering and technology innovation.

The focal point of their work together this season is applying Zapata AI’s Industrial Generative AI solutions and expertise to give the Andretti INDYCAR team a competitive advantage in pursuit of winning races. 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,” said 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 key race variable that would not have been measurable with physical sensors otherwise.
• Decision-making: Implementation of Zapata AI’s Industrial Generative AI solutions was one of the key enabling technologies for fast predictions to support decision-making using livestream and historic data.
• Data infrastructure integration and enhancement: The Zapata AI and Andretti teams explored novel, 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 particular needs to stay competitive and push the envelope in multiple car racing circuits worldwide.

“We are excited to keep learning from Andretti and continue our joint, tangible progress on resolving the technology challenges we face,” commented 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. And those are only two examples. There are many more that we’ll be tackling this season and beyond.”

“The Zapata AI team has been an outstanding partner in upgrading our race strategy infrastructure to leverage the latest tools for analytics, data streaming, and generative AI,” said Eric Bretzman, Technical Director at Andretti Global. “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. We’re looking forward to expanding on these capabilities in our third season together.”

Looking ahead to the 2024 season kicking off with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 10, 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, potentially offering a competitive edge.
• 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.

About Andretti Global

Led by racing legend Michael Andretti, the team fields multiple entries in INDYCAR, INDY NXT, IMSA and Formula E; and has collaborations in Extreme E as Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E, Mexico SuperCopa series as Andretti Jourdain Autosport and Australian Supercars as Walkinshaw Andretti United. The global racing enterprise boasts over 260 race wins, four INDYCAR Series championships, five INDY NXT titles, one Indy Pro 2000 and one USF2000 championship, one FIA Formula E Drivers World Championship, a Silver Class GT4 championship and has captured victory five times at the famed Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. The team also holds two X Games Gold Medals and five U.S. rallycross championships.

About Zapata AI

Zapata AI is an Industrial Generative AI company, revolutionizing how enterprises solve complex problems with its powerful suite of Generative AI software. By combining numerical and text-based solutions, Zapata AI empowers industrial-scale enterprises and government entities to leverage large language models and numerical generative models better, faster, and more efficiently—delivering solutions to drive growth, savings and insight. With proprietary science and engineering techniques and the Orquestra platform, Zapata AI is accelerating Generative AI’s impact in Industry. The Company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. On September 6, 2023, Zapata AI entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Andretti Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: WNNR).

Source: Zapata AI