Ring unveils $250 drone and $1,000 security robot for homes and businesses

The Ring Drone Cam and Ring Rover Cam are the first products under the Ring Robotics name, which the company describes as “a new category of autonomous, mobile security.” The drone launches from a charging dock to fly pre-planned routes, respond to alarms from other Ring devices, or deploy on demand. The Rover patrols stores and offices, using a telescoping camera to see over counters and shelving, and can perform 360-degree scans.

Both devices run on a system Ring calls AI Pilot, which uses onboard cameras, specialized vision models, sensors and cloud processing to map a space, plan routes and navigate around obstacles. During setup, customers carry the drone through the home or let the Rover explore autonomously to generate a floor plan. The system then suggests patrol areas users can add to in the Ring app.

The drone can fly for up to eight minutes before returning to its dock. It has a 2K camera with LED illumination and a 148-degree field of view. Ring founder Jamie Siminoff said at a New York demo that the device could act as a crime deterrent: “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. You’re probably not going to go into that house.”

The Rover repurposes Amazon’s Astro home robot, which debuted in 2021 and had a short-lived business variant before being discontinued. Ring said it “leveraged the best of Astro” to build the Rover, which it calls a “purpose-built security robot.” It includes a siren, lights, two-way audio and streams video in up to 4K.

Ring’s earlier indoor drone, the Always Home Cam, was announced in 2020 at the same $250 price but never went on general sale. Siminoff said the company waited to perfect the design, sensors and data processing. The original drone followed pre-mapped paths; the new version builds a floor plan as the owner carries it through the house.

At $999.99, the Rover costs less than half the $2,350 starter price of Astro for Business. Amazon discontinued that product less than a year after its launch, refunding customers and disabling the robots.

Both devices raise fresh privacy questions about Amazon’s ability to map and record inside homes. Ring has faced years of criticism over police partnerships, a $5.8 million FTC settlement in 2023 over allegations of improper employee access to videos, and a proposed class-action lawsuit over its Familiar Faces facial recognition feature. A Super Bowl ad this year promoting a feature that could remotely activate Ring cameras to search for lost pets also drew backlash.

Ring says videos captured by the new robots are protected by a system called Throw Away the Key Encryption, which uses rotating encryption keys that the cloud can temporarily access only under strict conditions before being deleted. “We take privacy concerns seriously, and we believe privacy and customer control are fundamental to building products people trust,” a Ring spokesperson said.

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

The Rover is available for preorder in the U.S. and scheduled to ship Dec. 16. The Drone Cam is slated for Jan. 27, 2027, but Ring is only taking email sign-ups; fine print notes it has not received required FCC authorization. Scheduled flights, patrols and reviewing Rover video require a Ring Protect subscription, though Ring has not specified which plans qualify.

Ring’s announcement comes as Amazon redeploys much of the Astro team to work on a new home robot, CNBC reported, and after it acquired humanoid robot startup Fauna Robotics in March. Siminoff, who sold Ring to Amazon in 2018, left in 2023 and returned last year to lead Ring and Amazon’s home security businesses. Last month, Ring unveiled its first smart lock.