Oculus Founder Plans Virtual Border Wall After Ouster from Facebook Over Views

Wants to rig U.S.-Mexico border with a variety of sensors to monitor for illegal crossings.

June 5, 2017 11:05 am
Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus VR Inc. and creator of the Oculus Rift, speaks during the Oculus VR Inc. "Step Into The Rift" event in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, June 11, 2015. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus VR Inc. and creator of the Oculus Rift, speaks during the Oculus VR Inc. "Step Into The Rift" event in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, June 11, 2015. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

After starting VR company Oculus, Palmer Luckey is looking to make a virtual border wall a reality.

And it doesn’t take a pair of high-tech goggles to see the potential controversy looming ahead.

Luckey, who sold his company to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, has is developing a surveillance system that uses a range of sensors for perimeter security that’s being pitched to the U.S. government to boost border security.

The New York Times reports that Luckey’s new company is combining lidar, detection technology used in self-driving cars, with surveillance cameras and infrared sensors to create an intelligent system that detects threats on the ground and in the air. The system could be a cost-effective alternative to President Trump’s proposed border wall.

The Oculus creator was quietly ousted from his position at Facebook in March after news broke that Luckey made donations to Nimble America, a pro-Trump group devoted to spreading anti-Hillary Clinton content online.

“We need a new kind of defense company, one that will save taxpayer dollars while creating superior technology to keep our troops and citizens safer,” the 24-year-old tech entrepreneur said in an email to the New York Times.

The InsideHook Newsletter.

News, advice and insights for the most interesting person in the room.