Amazon’s Ring unveils flying drone and robot to patrol homes and businesses

Amazon’s Ring is going deeper into surveillance with an indoor drone for home monitoring and an autonomous robot designed to patrol businesses.

The company on Tuesday unveiled the $US250 Ring Drone Cam, a security camera that can fly from room to room, including upstairs, as well as capture footage during the day or at night.

When an alarm or sensor on windows, doors and home security devices is triggered, the textbook-sized drone travels a preset path to investigate suspicious activity. Users can also deploy the drone at any time, the company said.

At a demo in New York on Monday, Ring chief executive Jamie Siminoff said the drone could be used as a home monitoring tool and as a crime “deterrent” due to the device’s built-in LED lights.

“If someone is going around your house at night, and your motion detector goes off on your Ring doorbell, imagine if you see spotlights and something flying across the window,” Mr Siminoff said. “You’re probably not going to go 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 is airborne.

Ring devices have provided Amazon another avenue to grow its presence in the smart home beyond its Echo smart speakers and Eero routers, expanding in a market that Grand View Research estimates will top $US200 billion in sales this year. It is equally fertile ground for Amazon rivals Apple and Google.

Ring, which Amazon acquired in 2018 and is known for its doorbells, has been beset with privacy concerns, primarily due to its partnerships with police. Earlier this year, Ring faced renewed scrutiny over a controversial Super Bowl ad touting an AI pet-finding tool called “Search Party.” It then cancelled an integration with police tech provider Flock Safety, which has also faced widespread backlash over its automated licence plate readers.

Ring first previewed its drone, then called the Always Home Cam, in 2020. Mr Siminoff said he chose to hold off on releasing the device until Amazon could perfect the design, sensors and data processing.

The company on Tuesday also debuted the $US1000 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.

Ring said it “leveraged the best of Astro” to build the Ring Rover Cam, which it describes as a “purpose-built security robot.”

Similar to the Astro, the device is a display mounted on a two-wheeled base with an extendable periscope camera. It also features a “built-in siren,” two-way audio and a “light tower” that shines onto the ceiling to help users keep track of its whereabouts.

Mr Siminoff said in an interview that the drone and the robot allow users to monitor multiple areas of their home or business with just one device.

“People like indoor cameras, but they don’t necessarily want them everywhere around their home,” Mr Siminoff said.

Ring said privacy is the “default” mode for both the drone and the robot, which flash an LED light when they are recording.

Mr Siminoff said the drone cannot fly outside per Federal Aviation Administration regulations, which restrict operating drones unless they are within a line of sight of a pilot.

“We have told our customers not to do that because it’s illegal,” Mr Siminoff said. “We’ve also put guardrails in there to make it so it doesn’t fly outside.”

The Ring Drone Cam ships in the US on January 27, pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission, while the Ring Rover Cam will begin shipping to users on December 16, the company said.

CNBC