*By Alex Heath*
Despite a consensus that VR headset adoption has slowed, Facebook ($FB) isn’t giving up on the nascent technology.
The social network on Wednesday announced a new VR headset, the Oculus Quest, at its annual Oculus Connect conference in San Jose, Calif. Unlike the Oculus Rift, the new model doesn’t require a connected PC to operate. It costs $399 and will ship in the spring of 2019.
“I really believe in this technology as the next frontier for human connection,” Facebook’s vice president of VR and AR, Andrew Bosworth, told Cheddar.
“There is no substitute for being physically present with somebody, but we can probably do better than the technology we have today in video conferencing and telepresence for phones. We really believe that this can be a tremendously powerful tool for connecting humans at a distance.”
Oculus Quest represents Facebook’s biggest bet yet to get one billion people to try virtual reality, an ambitious goal that CEO Mark Zuckerberg set at last year’s Oculus Connect conference.
This year, much of Facebook’s efforts in VR are focused on social features that encourage people to use headsets together, along with a slew of new VR games and entertainment titles.
Facebook has never shared sales numbers for Oculus. But the company did say on Wednesday that 80 percent of people who buy its lower-tier Oculus Go headset are new to its VR ecosystem. A [recent IDC report](https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS44257218) predicted that 212,000 Oculus Go’s have been shipped since the product was first made available last October.
Facebook’s Oculus announcements come after a string of notable executive departures at the company, including the recent resignation of Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Other departures include WhatsApp’s co-founders, Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch, communications and policy chief Elliot Schrage, and vice president of partnerships Dan Rose.
Bosworth is among Facebook’s longest-serving executives, having joined more than 10 years ago. Before taking over the company’s hardware efforts last year, he led the ads business and helped launch important initiatives like the News Feed. He’s not worried about the apparent turnover.
“If you look at the record, we’re actually seeing people staying at Facebook much longer than is normal in Silicon Valley,” he said. “Silicon Valley does tend to be a place where people move around a lot.”
Bosworth declined to discuss Facebook’s forthcoming “Portal” video chat devices for the home, [which will be announced soon](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebooks-portal-video-chat-device-to-be-announced-next-week). The devices will represent Facebook’s first foray into selling consumer hardware outside of the Oculus brand when they are made available in the coming weeks.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebook-announces-new-vr-headset-oculus-quest).
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
At the core of the ongoing government shutdown is a fight over the decision to end subsidies that let some 12 million Americans get health coverage.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
