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

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The hardware rollout features an autonomous domestic indoor flyer alongside a heavy-duty commercial patrol machine developed from Amazon's Astro platform. To ease monitoring anxieties, both models incorporate flashing LED lights that signal active recording to nearby occupants. The launch represents a push to widen property coverage while managing past fallout from canceled surveillance initiatives like its Flock Safety partnership.

Key points

  • Mobile surveillance units offer comprehensive property coverage without requiring custome…: Mobile surveillance units offer comprehensive property coverage without requiring customers to mount separate cameras in every single room.
  • Federal Communications Commission clearance remains necessary before the flying indoor dr…: Federal Communications Commission clearance remains necessary before the flying indoor drone can begin scheduled U.S. shipments on January 27.
  • Visual recording lights serve as a key default privacy safeguard as the brand seeks dista…: Visual recording lights serve as a key default privacy safeguard as the brand seeks distance from past surveillance controversies.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

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 $250 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 pre-set 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 CEO 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," Siminoff said. "You're probably not going to go into that house."

The drone, which can fly up to eight minutes at a time…

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