THE CRUNCH
Amazon's Ring has announced Ring Robotics, a new category of autonomous, mobile security devices, with two launch products: the Ring Drone Cam, an indoor flying camera for homes, and the Ring Rover Cam, a wheeled patrol robot for businesses. The Drone Cam costs $249.99 and ships on 27 January 2027; the Rover Cam is $999.99 and starts shipping on 16 December. Both run on Ring's AI Pilot system, which uses cameras, sensors and cloud processing to map a space, suggest patrol points and navigate around obstacles.
The Drone Cam is a 165-gram quadcopter with a 2K forward camera, a 1080p downward camera and LED lights for night flights, which Ring says can also deter intruders by mimicking a guard sweeping a torch. It can fly pre-set patrol schedules, respond to a triggered motion or leak sensor, or be dispatched manually via Alexa Home Map, Amazon's 3D floor-plan view. Battery life is modest: eight to ten minutes of flight, with eight minutes of charging buying roughly one minute more. When low on power or offline, it returns to its dock. One note on pricing: TechCrunch put the drone at $270, against the $249.99 figure Ring's announcement and Engadget give, so the exact retail price is worth double-checking before pre-order.
The Rover Cam is aimed at businesses rather than homes. It rolls on large wheels, streams and records 4K video, and carries a telescoping periscope camera that can be raised to see over counters and shelving. It performs 360-degree scans on arrival, includes a siren, flashing lights and two-way audio, and Ring estimates about 30 minutes of battery, enough to cover roughly 5,000 square feet on a single floor. The design borrows heavily from Amazon's Astro robot, and Ring says it was inspired by feedback from Astro customers. The $2,350 Astro for Business security robot was discontinued in 2024 after roughly a year on sale, making the Rover Cam a notably cheaper second attempt at the same idea.
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff said earlier versions of the drone were never good enough to ship, and that a fully self-contained version would have needed more sensors, compute and battery, pushing the price past $5,000. Leaning on cloud processing is what made the current weight and price possible, which also means the drone depends on a Wi-Fi connection to navigate.
Privacy is the obvious sticking point. Both devices generate floor plans of interior spaces, and footage is processed in Amazon's cloud. Ring says the Drone Cam powers down and turns off its camera in its dock, recording only when a flight is triggered, and that video from both devices is protected by TAKE, which the company calls its strongest default encryption yet. It is unclear whether local video storage will be an option.