Ring, Amazon’s home-security business, announced Ring Robotics on 10 November 2026 with two devices, according to Amazon’s announcement: the Ring Drone Cam, an indoor flying camera, and the Ring Rover Cam, a wheeled autonomous security robot for businesses. The release describes Ring Robotics as “a new category of autonomous, mobile security”. TechCrunch calls it a robotics division; the word division does not appear in Amazon’s release. Lens covered Amazon’s separate home-robot team in an earlier post.

Ring Drone Cam

Amazon lists the Drone Cam at $249.99, shipping in the United States on 27 January 2027, with an email sign-up and no preorder. According to Amazon, it flies indoors with a 148-degree field of view and 360-degree rotation, records 2K video and has two LED lights that turn on automatically in low light. Users can set custom routes, schedule flights or launch it on demand, and it flies to preset patrol points when a connected Ring camera, sensor or alarm is triggered. It can be controlled from the new Alexa Home Map. Amazon’s page does not give flight time, battery life, weight or coverage. CNBC reports up to eight minutes per flight; Engadget reports about eight to ten minutes, a weight of 165 grams and a 1080p underside camera in addition to the 2K front camera. Jamie Siminoff, whom Amazon calls Ring’s founder and chief inventor, told CNBC at a New York demonstration on 9 November that Ring has told customers not to fly it outdoors and has built guardrails to keep it inside, citing FAA line-of-sight rules, according to CNBC.

The release includes a footnote on regulatory status: “Ring Drone Cam has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission.” It continues: “This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.” Amazon told The Register the drone will still ship in January. CNBC says shipping is pending FCC approval; TechCrunch and Engadget do not mention the footnote.

Ring Rover Cam

Amazon lists the Rover Cam at $999.99, shipping in the United States on 16 December 2026, with preorders open. It streams and records up to 4K video as it moves or patrols, has an adjustable periscope mast (Engadget says it extends up to four feet), a siren, a light tower and two-way audio, and scans 360 degrees when it arrives at a stop. Amazon says it detects people continuously even when docked, can alert and record, runs scheduled sweeps such as after closing, and checks programmed patrol points when a connected Ring device is triggered. Amazon’s page does not give battery life, speed, size, weight or coverage area; iTech Post says up to 5,000 square feet on a single floor, a figure Lens did not find on Amazon’s page.

Amazon says the Rover was originally inspired by feedback from customers of Amazon’s Astro home robot, who said roving security was the feature they liked most, and that Ring drew on Astro to build a purpose-built security robot. CNBC says the Rover repurposes Astro, and Engadget calls it nearly identical to Astro in its hands-on. Engadget says the business version of Astro cost $2,350 and was discontinued in 2024; Basic Tutorials gives $2,349.99, a November 2023 launch and a discontinuation after about seven months.

AI Pilot

Amazon says both devices run on AI Pilot, a custom-built system that uses the devices’ cameras, specialized vision models, on-device sensors and cloud processing. It maps the space into a floor plan, with the drone carried through the home once and the Rover exploring on its own, identifies rooms, suggests patrol points such as doors, windows, registers and long corridors, accepts user-added points, plans routes and avoids obstacles.

Privacy and subscription

Amazon says the drone’s camera is off while it is docked and records only when a flight is triggered, that the Rover has a Sleep Mode that retracts the periscope and turns off the microphone, and that both devices have LED recording indicators, with the Rover also showing recording status on its screen. It says videos from both are protected by Throw Away the Key encryption, which Ring calls its strongest default encryption yet. The Register quotes Amazon as saying that “A copy of the keys is temporarily held inside a secure enclave within the cloud”, and reports that Ring did not answer its question about the security of floor plans. TechCrunch says it is unclear whether there will be an option for local video storage; Engadget reports that Siminoff said local processing would push the drone’s price past $5,000.

Amazon’s release says “A compatible Ring Protect plan is required” for scheduling drone flights, scheduling Rover sweeps and reviewing footage at any time, and gives no price. NBC News reports that both devices require a subscription of $5 a month or $60 a year, citing an unnamed customer service representative; Fox Business attributes the same figures to a spokesperson via NBC and quotes the phrase “required for full functionality”, which NBC’s page does not contain. The Register also notes Ring’s 2023 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which it puts at $5.8 million, the cancelled Flock Safety partnership and a class action over its Familiar Faces feature filed in June.

Earlier drone concept

CNBC reports that Ring first previewed its drone, then called the Always Home Cam, in 2020, and that Siminoff held off on releasing it until Amazon could perfect the design, sensors and data handling. Android Authority says it was introduced at Amazon’s 2020 hardware event and never launched. Engadget says Siminoff described a drone concept dating to 2016 and that, after the first drone was announced in 2021, the company put products in boxes but never shipped them. Basic Tutorials reports that the Always Home Cam was unveiled in September 2020 at $249.99, offered by invitation to US buyers in 2021 and flown publicly at CES 2023. Amazon’s release and TechCrunch do not mention it.

Sources and notes

Sources: Amazon’s announcement on aboutamazon.com (10 November 2026), read through a summary; TechCrunch (Lucas Ropek), CNBC (Annie Palmer), Engadget (Cherlynn Low), NBC News (David K. Li), Fox Business (Louis Casiano), The Register (Brandon Vigliarolo), Android Authority (Ryan McNeal) and 9to5Mac (Ben Lovejoy), all 10 November; Basic Tutorials (Philipp Briel), Tech Times, iTech Post and American Bazaar. Amazon’s product pages returned HTTP 503, GeekWire, Bloomberg and PetaPixel returned 403, and the tool could not read The Verge, CNET or Ars Technica; Lens did not locate a Ring blog post. Prices differ: Amazon, Engadget, Android Authority and 9to5Mac give $249.99 for the drone and $999.99 for the Rover, CNBC, NBC and Fox Business round to $250 and $1,000, and TechCrunch gives $270 for the drone. TechCrunch and CNBC give the Rover’s date as 16 December without a year. Siminoff is called founder and chief inventor in Amazon’s release and Ring CEO by CNBC and American Bazaar. Lens did not verify Ring Protect pricing for the new devices, whether the FCC will grant authorization, or the Rover’s own regulatory status, which no source mentions.

Image: A small brass security camera on a bracket in a room corner at Aarhus City Hall, Denmark, March 2025. Photo: Ciara Ní Riain, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped. Stand-in image of an unrelated fixed camera; it does not show a Ring device.