Ring's $249.99 Drone Cam Flies Through Your Home, and a $999.99 Rover Cam Patrols the Office

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Ring, the Amazon-owned home security company, announced a robotics line on Tuesday with two devices that move on their own: the Ring Drone Cam, a small flying camera for the inside of a home, and the Ring Rover Cam, a wheeled security robot for shops, offices and warehouses. Amazon’s announcement says the Drone Cam will ship in the US on Jan. 27, 2027, for $249.99, and the Rover Cam will ship on Dec. 16 for $999.99. The Rover Cam is open for preorder now.

The drone is the more familiar idea. Ring first announced a flying indoor camera in 2020 as the Always Home Cam, and Wired reports that the company nearly launched a version last year before Jamie Siminoff, its founder, sent the team back to handle more edge cases. The new Drone Cam sits in a dock until it is needed, then flies routes the owner sets, on a schedule or on demand. When another Ring camera, sensor or alarm in the house is triggered, it flies to preset patrol points to look. It records 2K video with a 148-degree field of view, can rotate 360 degrees, and switches on two LED lights in dark rooms. It can also be controlled from Amazon’s new Alexa Home Map.

Image: Ring

The Rover Cam grew out of Astro, the home robot Amazon introduced in 2021. Ring says Astro owners told the company that roving security was the feature they valued most, so its engineers took the best parts of Astro and built a robot that does only that job. It patrols on a schedule or when another Ring device raises an alert, and does a 360-degree scan when it reaches each stop. A periscope camera on an adjustable mast can look over counters and shelving, and Ring says the robot streams and records in up to 4K the whole time it is moving, not just at its stops. A siren, a light tower and two-way audio let an owner confront an intruder remotely. Ring’s product page says one Rover Cam can cover up to 5,000 square feet.

*Video: Ring on YouTube*

Both machines run on what Ring calls AI Pilot, which combines the devices’ cameras, vision models, on-device sensors and cloud processing. Setup is meant to be simple. An owner carries the drone through the home, or lets the rover explore on its own, and the system builds a floor plan, identifies rooms and suggests patrol points such as a side door, a window, a cash register or a long corridor. During a flight or patrol it plans a route from that map and steers around furniture and other obstacles in real time.

Image: Ring

A camera that roams a house invites questions about privacy, and Ring addressed them directly. The company says the drone powers down in its dock with its camera off and records only once a flight is triggered. A Sleep Mode on the rover retracts the periscope and turns off its microphone. Both devices show LED indicators while recording, and Ring says neither is meant to be stealthy: the drone’s propellers are audible and the rover’s light tower is bright. Video from both is protected by what Ring calls Throw Away the Key encryption, which it describes as its strongest default encryption yet.

“For years, customers told us they wanted eyes in the places a fixed camera couldn’t reach, and peace of mind in the spots they’d never want one,” Siminoff, who holds the title of founder and chief inventor, said in the announcement. “The honest answer wasn’t more cameras; it meant reimagining what a security device could be.”

Screenshot: @ring on X

There are two catches. Scheduled patrols and video review require a Ring Protect subscription. And the Drone Cam has not yet been authorized by the Federal Communications Commission, so Ring says it cannot be sold or leased until that approval arrives. For now, buyers can sign up for email updates.

Screenshot: @ring on X

Both devices are launching in the US, and they work with the Ring app, cameras, doorbells, sensors and alarms that Ring customers already use.