Amazon has launched a surveillance drone for use in homes, under its Ring doorbell brand, after years of delays in bringing the product to market and several redesigns.

The Ring Drone Cam device is to be made available to US customers in late January 2027 for $250 (£187), more than six years after Amazon first announced the concept.

An earlier version of the camera drone, called the Always Home Cam, was first shown to the public in 2020, but Ring chief executive Jamie Siminoff said the company had been unable to achieve the right balance of on-board sensors, weight and battery life.

Flying camera

The new model uses a lighter-weight design that was achieved through the decision to offload most of the drone’s intelligence to cloud processing, meaning it requires a Wi-Fi connection for everything except taking off and landing, Siminoff said.

Users can set it to travel on a preset path around a home at any time, or it can be tuned to take off and investigate when triggered by inputs from other sensors, such as cameras or motion sensors on a Ring doorbell, or other Ring cameras around a home.

The unit can fly for about eight minutes before returning to its dock to recharge its battery. While in flight, it emits a loud buzzing sound and displays LED lights, features intended to deter intruders.

Surveillance concerns

Amazon also introduced the $1,000 Ring Rover Cam, a repurposed version of its discontinued consumer Astro robot.

The new robot is being marketed as a tool businesses can use to patrol premises at night, and is similar in design to the earlier Astro except for a light that projects onto the ceiling when it is in motion, enabling users to easily track its position.

Amazon’s Ring doorbells have been the focus of criticism around surveillance, much of which related on Amazon providing footage from doorbell cameras to law-enforcement agencies.