Amazon’s Ring has a new $249 security drone patrolling your home

“Always Home Cam” isn’t Amazon’s delivery drone but will deliver piece of mind… in 2021

Today at its new product event, Amazon debuted a new $249 drone that’s job is to patrol your home when you aren’t there. Will people invite Bezos Inc drones into their homes?

‘Always Home Cam’ use case

The idea is pretty novel — you want to take a look around your home when you are away. However, you can only place so many stationary cameras throughout your house that you can’t possibly cover everything.

Strangely, I’ve got my medium-large sized home covered with about five stationary cameras. But I guess maybe if you live in a Jeff Bezos-sized home, this thing makes some sense.

Ring Always Home Cam flies predetermined paths set by the user. When used with Ring Alarm, the Ring Always Home Cam will fly the appropriate paths to check for potential disturbances when an alarm sensor is triggered.

Theoretically, the intruder, who is hearing beeping and buzzing from the real security system but isn’t phased, will become afraid of the slightly larger than a mosquito drone hovering his/her way and boogie out.

Or at least that’s the story told by Amazon’s video below

Always Home Cam usability

As you can probably tell, I’m not 100% sold on the idea of a security drone being more reliable or better at capturing break-ins than stationary drones (which can also be hidden better and offer better cameras than this one which is 1080P).

The big question is security. If someone has your Amazon credentials can they sneak attack you while you are sleeping or getting jiggy? Will they gain eyes inside your home? Amazon says that the camera will only be operable when the drone is flying.

But let’s give Bezos some credit — this thing is super cool. Here’s Amazon’s description:

Ring Always Home Cam: One Camera, Every Viewpoint Ring Always Home Cam gives homeowners a variety of viewpoints throughout their home without having to purchase multiple cameras. Users can check if the oven was left on, the doors are locked, or the curling iron was left on with this compact, lightweight, autonomously flying indoor camera that flies predetermined paths set by the user, providing greater visibility when no one is home. When used with Ring Alarm, the Ring Always Home Cam will fly the appropriate paths to check for potential disturbances when an alarm sensor is triggered. Ring Always Home Cam was built with privacy in mind and only records video when in flight. When not in use, it remains in the dock where the camera is physically blocked. When in motion, it makes an audible sound—this is privacy you can hear.

OK, that sounds pretty cool. And certainly it can get close up and views a stationary camera can’t get. We’ll be checking in on this thing once it becomes available next year.

To see more of what Amazon announced today, head over to 9to5toys.com