Under immense pressure created by Facebook investors over his political views, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey decided to depart the social networking giant earlier this year. The 24-year old garnered a name for himself for selling his venture to Facebook for a massive $2 billion back in 2014. And if you had been thinking that Luckey will go into the night silently with his acquisition money then you’re greatly mistaken.
Citing three people familiar with the developments, The New York Times reports that Luckey is now working on a new startup and is said to be closely involved with U.S. President Trump’s administration. While some previous reports indicated he was building a VR game venture, but he is working on a security company.
Luckey is spending his energy and capital to build surveillance technology for Trump’s much-talked-about border wall. It will have multiple purposes at national borders and military bases, the aforementioned being one of them. This technology will be developed using LiDAR sensors (which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, a primary technology in self-driving cars), coupled with other infrared sensors and cameras to help border officials prevent illegal crossings.
The currently unnamed venture, which is expected to receive backing from PayPal founder Peter Theil’s (a Trump supporter) well-known Founder’s Fund, is aimed at introducing innovation in defense technologies. Luckey believes that though the government is pouring capital into developing new gadgets for military purposes, but innovation has been fading away. He plans to reenergize the sector with this surveillance technology.
Speaking about the venture with NYT, Luckey in an email statement said,
We are spending more than ever on defense technology, yet the pace of innovation has been slowing for decades. 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 report further states that Luckey has also found his way into the White House, securing meetings with leading representatives of the Trump administration. He is planning to sell the government his ideology and has already initiated talks with Trump’s right-hand man and chief strategist, Steve Bannon. It has also been reported that Luckey had scored another meeting with Ryan Zinke, a secretary of the interior, back in April 2017.
While another defense-focused startup wouldn’t have called for much recognition but Palmer Luckey, who has been identified as a Trump supporter, developing surveillance technology is sure to raise some questions. It builds upon the President’s plan to prevent illegal entries into the nation by building a border wall near Mexico. It has been mentioned in the report that the technology will be able to detect the difference between humans and coyotes — even on the Southern border.
