Oculus Founder’s Attempt to Build a Digital Border Wall

Palmer Luckey's company Anduril is using VR to surveil certain parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Palmer Luckey, Founder, Oculus VR, on the Centre Stage during Day 1 of the 2015 Web Summit in the RDS, Dublin, Ireland. Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE / Web Summit (Photo by Sportsfile/Corbis via Getty Images)
Palmer Luckey, Founder, Oculus VR, on the Centre Stage during Day 1 of the 2015 Web Summit in the RDS, Dublin, Ireland. Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE / Web Summit (Photo by Sportsfile/Corbis via Getty Images)
Corbis via Getty Images

A new Wired article investigates Anduril, Palmer Luckey’s company that is trying to build a digital border wall. Luckey, who founded Oculus and has given money to President Trump’s campaign in the past, is now attempting to develop surveillance technology that could be used to complement Trump’s border agenda.

The technology itself, dubbed Lattice, combines traditional surveillance equipment with VR. After an initial round of testing, Lattice appears to be able to detect people within a two-mile radius of one of its towers.

Anduril is the brainchild of Luckey, who parted ways with Facebook under mysterious circumstances last year, and several other conservative-leaning Silicon Valley executives. Luckey’s original team includes former employees of Palantir, the controversial data company. The face of Anduril’s investment team is Peter Thiel, the head of Founders Fund and Silicon Valley’s most-visible pro-Trump conservative. Anduril has already tested its prototype in Texas.

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