The $1500 Meta Quest pro may have just gone on sale, but the company is already teasing the next version in its line of cheaper VR headsets. During the company’s latest earnings call, outgoing CFO Dave Whener said “the next generation of the consumer Quest headset” will launch “later next year."

Mark Zuckerberg also referenced the “next generation of our consumer Quest headset.” He didn’t name the device, but it certainly sounds like he was referring to the Meta Quest 3. It’s unclear exactly when it could launch, but in the past the company has introduced new headsets in the fall to coincide with its annual Connect event.

It’s not the first time Zuckerberg has mentioned the Quest 3. He told analyst Ben Thompson earlier this month that a Quest 3 was in the works, and that it would likely fall in the $300 - $500 price range. That would make it more in line with previous Quest headsets — the Quest 2 started at $299 — rather than the latest Quest Pro.

While Quest 3 may be more of a budget device than the Quest Pro, there are signs Meta may incorporate some elements of the higher-end VR headset. As UploadVR has pointed out, Zuckerberg has said face and eye tracking will a be “a big focus,” and at least one early rumor suggests Quest 3 could have “pancake lenses” similar to the Quest Pro.

Shortly after news broke Wednesday afternoon that its self-driving subsidiary Argo AI would be wound down, Ford CEO Jim Farley joined in on the company's Q3 earnings call and spoke at length about how senior management came to that decision. "It's estimated that more than a hundred billion has been invested in the promise of level four autonomy," he said during the call, "And yet no one has defined a profitable business model at scale."

In short, Ford is refocusing its investments away from the longer-term goal of Level 4 autonomy (that's a vehicle capable of navigating without human intervention though manual control is still an option) for the more immediate short term gains in faster L2+ and L3 autonomy. L2+ is today's state of the art, think Ford's BlueCruise or GM's SuperCruise technologies with hands-free driving along pre-mapped highway routes, L3 is where you get into the vehicle handling all safety-critical functions along those routes, not just steering and lane-keeping. 

"Commercialization of L4 autonomy, at scale, is going to take much longer than we previously expected," Doug Field, chief advanced product development and technology officer at Ford, said during the call. "L2+ and L3 driver assist technologies have a larger addressable customer base, which will allow it to scale more quickly, and profitability."

"It’s taking that investment and putting it towards a business where we think we will have a sizable return in the near term relative to one that’s going to have a long arc," he added. The company didn't elaborate on a specific timeframe for when it would potentially be ready, thought Farley did stress that developing the foundational technologies needed for Level 4 will not be won quickly. "We don’t expect a single ‘Aha!’ moment like we used to,” he said.

Farley anticipates updated L2+ and L3 systems to arrive in the coming years alongside the company's second cycle of EVs in 2023 - 2025. "Ford is completely refreshing it's EV lineup globally, introducing fully updatable electrical architectures and in-house software development for controlling the vehicle," Farley noted. 

Fields stressed the importance of keeping much of the back end functions of these evolving ADAS technologies in-house. "We will have a core team that can integrate a system, understand its performance at the system level," he said. "And we will own the software. It is really important that we also own the connection to these vehicles. L3 is a connected technology, so the ability to have a pipeline that collects data and makes the system better and better — we must own that."

"That's a problem that actually doesn't exist in L4 and is a huge opportunity for us to create a Ford experience that's really unique." Fields said.

One day after an Amazon driver in Missouri died of an apparent dog attack, some workers are accusing the company of sending an ill-timed, tone-deaf message in light of the incident. On Wednesday, Vice News reported that some drivers received a “Dog Awareness” message following Tuesday’s incident. The advisory refers to dogs as “our four-legged customers” and “Fido,” seemingly downplaying the danger some canines can present to delivery workers.

“We want to help ensure you aren’t surprised by our four-legged customers when on route, so be sure to check the Amazon Delivery App for the paw print icon in the ‘Delivery Notes’ indicating you should ‘be aware of a dog at this stop,'" the message reportedly states. “If we know Fido is nearby, we’ll add the paw print to give you a heads up. As always, contact the customer to help you with the pet, or ‘Driver Support’ in the Delivery App if you can’t reach the customer.”

Vice News

Amazon did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for clarification if the advisory was sent in response to the attack and whether it was drafted after the incident had already occured. On Tuesday, the company told Vice it was working with police to investigate the death. “We’re deeply saddened by tonight’s tragic incident involving a member of our Amazon family and will be providing support to the team and the driver’s loved ones,” the company said.

The death of one of their colleagues to a likely dog attack has become one of the most popular topics of conversation among driver groups and subreddits. In one thread spotted by Vice, some drivers called for a walkout on October 31st. “Amazon’s response to this has been nothing short of insulting,” says one respondent.

Amazon has frequently come under fire for its questionable responses to worker safety concerns. For instance, after a 2020 report found that workers at the company's most automated warehouses suffered injuries more frequently than their peers, Amazon said it would launch a health and wellness program – instead of reducing productivity quotas.

Microsoft’s Game Pass service is profitable and accounts for about 15 percent of the company’s overall Xbox content and services revenue. Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer shared the tidbit of information in an on-stage interview at The Wall Street Journal’sTech Live conference (via The Verge).

“Game Pass as an overall part of our content and services revenue is probably 15 percent,” he told The Journal’s Sarah Needleman. “I don’t think it gets bigger than that. I think the overall revenue grows so 15 percent of a bigger number, but we don’t have this future where I think 50 to 70 percent of our revenue comes from subscriptions.”

Spencer added that Microsoft has recently seen “incredible” growth on PC, with uptake slowing on consoles primarily due to saturation. “... at some point you’ve reached everybody on console that wants to subscribe,” he said. Microsoft announced earlier this week that PC Game Pass subscriptions increased by 159 percent year over year during Q1 2023. The company has also seen people stream more games over its Xbox Cloud Gaming platform. Spencer hinted that mobile would play a major role in the future of Game Pass.

“If you take a long-term bet, which we’re doing, that we will be able to get access to players on the largest platforms that people play on — Android and iOS phones — we want to be in a position with content, players, and storefront capability to take advantage of it,” he said, alluding to the recent disclosure that Microsoft wants to build an Xbox store that’s available on mobile devices.

Spencer was also adamant that the price of Game Pass would go up at some point. “We’ve held price on our console, we’ve held price on games and our subscription,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll be able to do that forever.”

It’s not often companies like Microsoft share figures like the ones Spencer did earlier today. They provide an insight into how important services like Game Pass are to the company’s bottom line and where they see the product evolving in the future.

A year later, Meta’s pivot to the metaverse is proving even more expensive. Reality Labs is losing more money than ever, Facebook’s parent company disclosed in its latest earnings report.

Reality Labs, the unit that oversees the company’s virtual and augmented reality projects, lost $3.7 billion in the third-quarter of 2022, a jump from a $2.6 billion loss a year ago and $2.8 billion last quarter. Reality Labs has lost more than $9 billion so far in 2022. And the company’s finance chief said the trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon. “We do anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year,” outgoing CFO Dave Whener said in a statement.

That’s significant because Meta’s massive investment in Reality labs has already proved costly for the company. Meta reported earlier this year that it lost $10 billion on Reality labs in 2021. The company also confirmed that the “next generation of our consumer Quest headset” is expected to launch “later next year,” an apparent reference to a Meta Quest 3.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg also warned that the company could face “near-term challenges on revenue.” The company reported $28 billion in revenue for the quarter, which was in line with analyst expectations, but “still behind where I think we should be,” according to Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg also confirmed that Meta would continue to slash hiring as it deals with slowing revenue growth. “Some teams will grow meaningfully but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year,” he said. “In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”

Developing…

You'll have to wait a few months if you want to see Team Ninja's latest take on Nioh-style demon slaying. Koei Tecmo has confirmed that Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty arrives March 3rd for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC (via the Microsoft Store and Steam). It will also be accessible through Xbox Game Pass on launch.

Wo Long is effectively Team Ninja's love note to Koei Tecmo's long-running obsession with Three Kingdoms-era China (see: Dynasty Warriors). You play a militia member fighting a demon onslaught in the later Han Period. You'll encounter famous warriors in the process. As with the Nioh series, you can expect an action-based battle system that rewards different playstyles, but is also unforgiving — when the creators talk about gaining strength by "overcoming adversity," it's safe to presume you'll die often.

You'll have something to play in the meantime, depending on your choice of platform. Sony just revealed that the remastered Nioh 2 will be one of PlayStation Plus Essential's free games for November alongside the Lego Harry Potter Collection and Heavenly Bodies.

It's not clear if Wo Long will continue Team Ninja's track record. There is a large potential audience, at least. Team Ninja has announced that the two Nioh games have shipped a combined 7 million copies since the franchise's debut in February 2017. While that won't make FromSoftware nervous (Elden Ring alone had sold 16.6 million units by July this year), it suggests the new title could have plenty of fans.

Autonomous vehicle company Argo AI is shutting down. In an earnings report, Ford (a major investor in Argo AI) noted that the company is being wound down and that it will hire engineers from the startup to expand and speed up development of Level 2+ and Level 3 autonomous driving systems.

Ford says that it made a decision to refocus its self-driving capital spending from the Level 4 systems Argo was working on (where the vehicles handles most driving operations) to Level 2+ (advanced driver assistance) and Level 3 (conditional automation) tech it's developing in-house. It noted that Argo AI wasn't able to attract new investors and that it was taking a "$2.7 billion non-cash, pretax impairment on its investment" in the company, which led to it posting an $827 million net loss for Q3.

According to TechCrunch, which first reported on Argo AI's closure, Volkswagen and Ford will snap up the company's tech and other assets. It's not clear how the automakers, which invested at least $3.6 billion into Argo AI between them, are divvying things up nor how many of Argo AI's more than 2,000 workers they plan to make employment offers to. All Argo AI employees will receive bonuses as part of their severance package, with those who Ford and VW don't keep on receiving additional payments and health insurance, according to the report.

In 2017, Ford said it would invest $1 billion into Argo AI over five years. Two years later, VW committed $2.6 billion in capital and assets toward the startup. Around that time, Ford and VW said they would work on vehicles that harness Argo AI's autonomous driving tech. Between them, the automakers held a "substantial majority" stake in Argo AI.

Argo AI had been testing its tech on public roads in the US and Germany. In May, it commenced driverless operations in Austin and Miami without a safety driver at the wheel. Lyft was among the companies that were looking at deploying Argo AI-powered vehicles. Just last month, Argo AI announced a number of tools and services designed to support autonomous delivery and robotaxi operations.

It's not clear what prompted the apparent closure of Argo AI — Engadget has contacted the company for comment. However, creating a robust and safe self-driving system is not exactly an easy challenge. Full Level 5 autonomy is still at least several years away from becoming truly viable for the mass market. To that end, Ford said in its earnings report that "the auto industry’s large-scale profitable commercialization of Level 4 advanced driver assistance systems will be further out than originally anticipated."

General Motors is on track to secure 100 percent of the electricity it needs to power all of its US facilities with renewable energy by 2025. On Wednesday, the automaker announced it recently finalized the sourcing agreements it needs to make that feat a reality. The announcement puts GM on track to meet the most recent renewable energy target it set for itself late last year. Previously, the company had planned to power all of its US facilities with renewables by 2030. GM claims its accelerated transition will allow it to avoid producing an estimated 1 million metric tons of carbon emissions between 2025 and 2030.

As of today, GM’s energy portfolio includes sourcing agreements with 16 renewable energy plants across 10 states. The company is also working on increasing the efficiency of its factories and offices, as well as building out its on-site power generation capabilities.

“Securing the renewable energy we need to achieve our goal demonstrates tangible progress in reducing our emissions in all aspects of our business, ultimately moving us closer to our vision of a future with zero emissions,” said Kristen Siemen, GM’s chief sustainability officer.

While GM is on track toward an impressive feat, it’s worth taking a moment to contextualize what today’s announcement means in the bigger picture. Firstly, the company operates offices and factories outside of the US. Today’s announcement doesn’t cover those facilities. Secondly, even when you factor in all of GM’s buildings, they’re only a small part of the company’s total carbon footprint.

According to its most recent sustainability report, Scope 1 and 2 emissions account for only two percent of GM’s total emissions. For those who aren’t familiar with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, it’s an accounting system many companies use to source and track their emissions. The Scope 1 category includes all pollution produced directly by an organization. Scope 2, meanwhile, encompasses indirect emissions created from the electricity, heating and cooling it buys. The majority of GM’s emissions, a whopping 98 percent, aren’t produced by its facilities. Instead, they come from the company’s supply chain and the consumers using its cars.

To be fair, GM is working on reducing those emissions. In the summer of 2021, the company announced it would invest a total of $35 billion through 2025 toward electric and autonomous vehicle development. That said, the transition is something that will take time. By 2030, GM plans for EVs to account for 40 to 50 percent of the cars its sells in the US.

iCloud has been available on the web for a long time, but you might not have rushed to use it given a basic and sometimes clunky interface. You might have a reason to give it another look, though. Apple has introduced a beta iCloud web client that presents far more info at a glance, with a customizable tile layout that reflects your priorities. It's easier to switch between apps thanks to launchers on the home page and menu bar, and you can quickly start tasks (such as writing email or adding calendar events) thanks to another menu option.

The revamp also improves access to iCloud+ features like custom email domains and Hide My Email. And if you're panicking at the thought of lost info, a "Data Recovery" tool will help you reclaim bookmarks, calendars, contacts and iCloud Drive files deleted within the last 30 days. Except for iCloud Drive, you can restore from specific moments in time. Some features still need to be controlled through Apple hardware, including Family Sharing, HomeKit Secure Video and Private Relay.

Apple hasn't said when the new iCloud web interface might leave beta testing. We've asked the company for comment and will let you know if we hear back. However, the tech firm pitches this as an upgrade for customers whose only Apple product might be an iPhone — you can more readily access content and manage services through your Windows PC's browser.

This redesign probably won't persuade Android users to switch, and the individual web apps haven't changed much. The beta may encourage you to stick to the Apple ecosystem, though. Combined with web access to services like Music and TV+, it also shows that Apple is eager to court users who can't (or just don't want to) run dedicated apps on their platforms of choice.

Samsung's The Frame — the smart TV that looks like art when it's off — just hit a record low price. As part of Samsung Week, a deals event running through November 1st, the 55-inch Samsung Frame comes in at $998, which is hundreds lower than it was Prime Day a few weeks ago. While these sets are still on the expensive side when on discount, they're hard to beat if you want a TV that blends into your space better than a standard black box.

As a TV, the Frame delivers the vivid, high-res quality with a QLED 4K panel, along with the intuitive smart TV interface of Samsung's Tizen OS. But the real draw here happens when the TV is off. In Art Mode, The Frame displays images from an extensive gallery of artwork. Pick from classic oil paintings from artists you'd find in the Louvre or modern photography from rising stars. I have an earlier model of The Frame and have surprised more than one visitor when I switched my "art" to an episode of Owl House.

One caveat is you'll need a Samsung Art Store subscription (currently $8 per month) to access the entire collection, as only a small subset is available for display without it. 

To really sell the idea that you're displaying art instead of a TV, The Frame comes standard with anti-reflective glass and a separate CPU to keep a low, flush-mounted profile. The CPU connects via a thin cable that's hard to spot, especially if you drop it behind the wall when mounting the TV. 

Getting a sub-$1,000 price point on the 55-inch model was unheard of before now. And currently, all sizes, up through the massive 85-inch, are deeply discounted. If the Frame isn't your style, or you're looking for an outdoor-friendly TV, Samsung Week discounts have also knocked down the prices of the Terrace TV and even some of the company's projectors. 

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