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Saturday 14 OctOber 2017 TECHNOLOGY
A24

Facebook gets real about broadening virtual reality’s appeal

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE such as Google and Micro-
AP Technology Writer soft that are betting on VR
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — have a long way to go.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuck- About 16 million head-
erberg seems to be realiz- mounted display devices
ing a sobering reality about were shipped in 2016, a
virtual reality: His compa- number expected to rise to
ny’s Oculus headsets that 22 million this year, accord-
send people into artificial ing to the research firm
worlds are too expensive Gartner Inc. Those figures
and confining to appeal to include headsets for what
the masses. is known as augmented re-
Zuckerberg on Wednesday ality. Zuckerberg, though,
revealed how Facebook remains convinced that
intends to address that VR will evolve into a tech-
problem, unveiling a stand- nology that reshapes the
alone headset that won’t way people interact and
require plugging in a smart- experience life, much like
phone or a cord tethering Facebook’s social net-
it to a personal computer works and smartphones
like the Oculus Rift headset already have. His visions
does. carry weight, largely be-
“I am more committed cause Facebook now has
than ever to the future more than 2 billion users
of virtual reality,” Zucker- In this Jan. 6, 2016, file photo, Peijun Guo wears the Oculus Rift VR headset at the Oculus booth at and plays an influential role
berg reassured a crowd CES International in Las Vegas. in how people communi-
of computer programmers Associated Press cate.
gathered in San Jose, Cali- manent. a LCD display. dream View, that require a But VR so far has been em-
fornia, for Oculus’ annual “The strategy for Facebook The Oculus Go will strad- smartphone. braced mostly by video
conference. is to make the onboarding dle the market between Google is also working on a game lovers, despite Face-
Facebook’s new headset, to VR as easy and inexpen- the Rift and the Samsung stand-alone headset that book’s efforts to bring the
called Oculus Go, will cost sive as possible,” said Gart- Gear, a $129 headset that won’t require a phone, but technology into the main-
$199 when it hits the mar- ner analyst Brian Blau. runs on some of Samsung’s hasn’t specified when that stream since buying Ocu-
ket next year. “And $199 is an inexpen- higher-priced phones. device will be released or lus for $2 billion three years
That’s a big drop from the sive entry for a lot of peo- It will be able to run the how much it will cost. ago.
Rift, which originally sold ple who are just starting out same VR as the Samsung Zuckerberg promised the Facebook has shaken
for $599 and required a PC in VR. The problem is you Gear, leading Blau to con- Oculus Go will be “the up Oculus management
costing at least $500 to be- will be spending that mon- clude the Go will rely on most accessible VR experi- team since then in a series
come immersed in virtual ey on a device that only the same Android operat- ence ever,” and help real- of moves that included the
reality, or VR. does VR and nothing else.” ing system as the Gear and ize his new goal of having departure of founder Palm-
Recent discounts lowered Facebook didn’t provide likely include similar proces- 1 billion people dwelling in er Luckey earlier this year.
the Rift’s price to $399 at any details on how the Oc- sors as Samsung phones. virtual reality at some point Former Google execu-
various times during the ulus Go will work, but said The Gear competes in the future. tive Hugo Barra now
summer, a markdown Oc- it will include built-in head- against other headsets, Facebook and other ma- oversees Facebook’s VR
ulus now says will be per- phones for audio and have such as Google’s $99 Day- jor technology companies operations.q

Dutch team wins Australia solar-powered car race 7th time

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — team’s car, Novum, fin-
A Dutch team won a solar- ished an hour later, with
powered car race across Belgium team Punch Pow-
Australia for a seventh time ertrain close behind in third
Thursday, with a University place.
of Michigan car taking sec- Nuon team engineer Mar-
ond place in the biennial ten Arthens described the
event. win as the “best feeling
The Nuon team’s Nuna 9 ever.”
car averaged more than “We’re going to celebrate,
80 kph (50 mph) to reach but first I’m going to take
the World Solar Challenge a shower. I haven’t done
finish line in the southern that in a week,” Arthens
coastal city of Adelaide said.
after five days of racing The Michigan team has
across 3,022 kilometers competed in 12 Australian
(1,878 miles) of Outback races since 1990.
highway from Darwin in the This year’s race attracted
north. 95 teams from more than
The Delft University of Tech- 20 countries.
nology-based team has It marks 30 years since the
competed eight times. In this Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017, file photo, the Punch Powertrain Solar Team car from Belgium first World Solar Challenge
The University of Michigan competes during the second race day of the 2017 World Solar Challenge in Kulgera, Australia. in 1987.q
Associated Press