Gradle AAR import paths need to be absolute instead of relative since the current work directory used to package Gradle is not the same as Ant.
1. Create project
2. Enable Gradle in Android project settings
3. Edit GearVR_UPL.xml and add:
<AARImports>
<insertValue value="repositories $S(PluginDir)/../../Source/ThirdParty/AndroidRepository"/>
<insertNewline/>
</AARImports>
4. make an empty Engine/Plugins/Runtime/Oculus/OculusVR/Source/ThirdParty/AndroidRepository/m2repository directory
5. Package for Android
6. Check the contents of Intermediate/Android/APK/gradle/app/aar-imports.gradle and make sure all the maven
sections have absolute paths
7. remove the GearVR_UPL.xml change and delete the directories created for the test in step 4
There's no existing public thread on this issue, so head over to Questions & Answers just mention UE-47952 in the post.