The new Dakar viewing experience was born from Zacchetti’s collaboration with one of his sponsors, tabUi — an app originally developed to allow people to explore the treasures of the Piedmont region of Northern Italy remotely via AR. Through Zacchetti, the company is seeing the Dakar Rally as a great opportunity to bring more exposure to their technology, as CEO Giorgio Proglio explained:

“The Dakar is obviously one of the most extraordinary sporting events ever and is a showcase unmissable for a brand like ours that wants to grow more and more, but the main reason for our choice is to carry out an experimentation, a sort of innovative test with augmented reality in the middle of the desert.”

Zacchetti, who will be competing in the challenging ‘Original by Motul’ (Malle Moto) category, will not only take those using the tabUi app along for the ride but will also let users interact with him with comments and questions. At the end of each stage, he will select the most interesting messages and reply to them in a live video.

The route for the Dakar Rally is 7,646 kms and includes 4,767 kms of special stages over 13 days. It remains to be seen how an app originally created to showcase a region will be adapted to a grueling rally in the desert but for viewers looking for a more immersive experience, this might be the closest you can get to the real thing.

The tabUi app is available for Android and iOS devices and you can also follow Zacchetti’s Dakar journey on his Facebook page.