Amazon’s Ring unveils flying drone and robot to patrol homes and businesses
Key Points
- Amazon has released a flying indoor security drone for businesses and a patrolling robot for businesses.
- The $250 Ring Drone Cam flies from room to room to investigate suspicious activity, and can capture footage at night.
- The $1,000 Ring Rover Cam repurposes Amazon’s Astro robot for deployment in workplaces, such as warehouses and offices.
- Amazon is furthering its monitoring capabilities with a drone for home use and an independent robot for commercial premises surveillance.
The company announced the $250 Ring Drone Cam, a security camera that can be operated between rooms, even upstairs, and take photos in both day and night modes, on Tuesday. In the event of an alarm or sensor being triggered on windows, doors or the home security devices, the textbook size drone quickly flies an established set path to investigate suspicious activity. The company also says that the drone can be deployed anytime.
Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff said that the drone could also be used as a crime “deterrent” because of the LED lights built into the drone, and used as a home monitoring tool at a demo Monday in New York.
If somebody is prowling around your house at night, and your Ring doorbell motion sensor triggers upon it, “think about if you see the spotlights and see something flying across the window.” “You’re not likely to be going into that house.”
The drone, which can fly up to eight minutes at a time before autonomously returning to its charging dock, has two plastic-encased propellers that emit a loud buzz when it’s airborne.
The smart home market is estimated to reach $200 billion in sales this year, and ring devices are the latest smart home offering from Amazon, which is looking to extend its smart home reach beyond its line of Echo smart speakers and Eero smart routers. This is also the kind of area ripe for competition from Amazon’s rivals, Apple and Google.
Amazon’s Ring acquired in 2018 is no stranger to privacy issues, largely as a result of its ties with police. Ring was in hot water again earlier this year for a controversial Super Bowl ad that promoted an AI seekout an assistance for pets, called “Search Party.” Following that, it also dropped integration with another police tech company, Flock Safety, which has also been the subject of much criticism for its automated license plate readers.
The drone, which was previously seen by Ring in 2020 under the Always Home Cam name, is finally taking to the skies. Siminoff said that he decided not to release the device until Amazon have perfected the design, the sensors and the data processing.
The company on Tuesday also debuted the $1,000 Ring Rover Cam. The device repurposes Amazon’s Astro home robot, which had a short life as a business device and has seen few upgrades since its 2021 debut, for companies to use to patrol offices, warehouses and other workspaces. 
The Ring Rover Cam was developed using the “best of Astro,” Ring said, adding it is a “purpose-built security robot.”
Like the Astro, it has a periscope camera that can be extended and is attached to a two-wheel stand. It also has a “built-in siren,” two-way audio and a “light tower” that lights up the ceiling to assist users in determining where it is.
The drone plus the robot lets users implement various regions of their home/business using one device, Siminoff said in an interview.
“They want cameras in their home, but they won’t necessarily want them everywhere,” Siminoff said.
Both drone and robot are “default” private and able to flash an LED light when recording, said Ring.
Siminoff said the drone can’t fly outside per Federal Aviation Administration regulations, which restrict operating drones unless they’re within a line of sight of a pilot.
We’ve advised our customers against doing that, said Siminoff, because it’s against the law.” We have also added some guard rails inside so it doesn’t fly outside.
The Ring Rover Cam will start shipping to customers on Dec. 16, the company states, with the Ring Drone Cam available for purchase in the U.S. on Jan. 27 after the Federal Communications Commission approves the device.