Amazon’s Ring is best known for its doorbell and home security cameras, but now the company is rolling out cameras that can move around on their own.

Ring announced Tuesday a new product category called Ring Robotics, starting with two devices, the Ring Drone Cam and Ring Rover Cam.

“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,” said Ring Founder Jamie Siminoff in a press release. “The honest answer wasn’t more cameras; it meant reimagining what a security device could be.”

Both devices are powered by Ring’s custom-built AI Pilot system, which allows them to map indoor spaces, suggest patrol points, and navigate around obstacles on their own.

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[–] [S] 35 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Well, I'm sure Amazon won't misuse this data.

/s

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  • [–] 23 points 16 hours ago

    "For years, customers (business owners) 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 they want to oversee every employee making sure they slave away every second not wasting one penny of mine,”

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  • [–] 21 points 15 hours ago

    Doing absolutely nothing untoward.

    Absolutely nothing untoward.

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  • [–] 16 points 9 hours ago (1 child)

    Black Mirror was a warning not a guidebook

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  • [–] 15 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

    God damn this is so cool. I would be into it more if it wasn't also so evil

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

    I struggle with that thought too.

    I can see so many positive use cases for this technology... but I just know it's going to be exploited for the worst purposes.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

    Use Case 1: cute widdle wobot flyin around your home :3

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 10 hours ago* (1 child)

    I realize you're joking, but you're not wrong. Lots of people will look at it that way.

    Hell, cuteness is what the FB marketing team is trying to leverage in order to get people to give up their data to their Muse agent.

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  • [–] 14 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

    I look forward to the articles that come out once it's realized that you can't own this if you have cats.

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  • [–] 10 points 12 hours ago (6 children)

    Does anyone puffing on this particular crack pipe have any idea how loud even little palm sized drones are, especially indoors?

    Even before getting into the privacy aspects this is a monumentally stupid idea. I can't wait to read all the one star reviews on this if/when it comes out.

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  • [–] 4 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

    It's also going to have to automatically return to some sort of charging cradle.

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  • [–] 3 points 12 hours ago (1 child)

    That's included in the headline image. Whether or not that actually works is a different story. I'm not a half bad drone pilot but even I have trouble accurately landing a mini drone on a spot that small since the ground effect combined with any tiny breezes in the room push the thing around relentlessly when it's that close to a surface.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 hours ago (10 children)

    I would love to have an indoor drone cam that i could reliably fly remotely, there's a thousand use cases for it. There is, however, absolutely no reason for it to be attached to the Amazon Surveillance State except to further enrich Jeff Bezos and supply a pipeline directly from inside my house to the government.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 hours ago (9 children)

    I feel like I'm living in another world, I can't think of a single reason why I'd want this let alone hundreds.

    What kinds of use cases are you thinking of?

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  • [–] 11 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

    Away on vacation, need to see if you left something plugged in you meant to unplug? Home's motion sensor set off an alarm while you're at work and you want to check around and see if it was the cat again or an actual burglar? Need to see above high cabinets or alcoves to check if you left something up there without a ladder? Maybe fly up into the attic if you have a water leak show up so you can see what's leaking? Away on vacation and left automated feeding/watering for the plants/cats, just checking in to see that they're not dead?

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  • [–] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 child)

    Most of that is solved by having a neighbor or just going into the attic or having a step stool

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  • [–] 3 points 3 hours ago

    I don't think anyone is arguing that having a drone to remotely view your house is some kind of necessity or human right. But if you don't have a neighbor or don't trust a neighbor to be in your house, or you don't want to inconvenience a neighbor, or a friend - or whatever, it is a use case and the question was about use cases. The ultimate point is, it is in fact a cool gadget, but handing your privacy over to Amazon for it is ridiculous.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago

    I have injuries that limit my mobility (though a recent surgery has improved it). Also, I'm lazy.

    Sometimes after I go to bed I want to check something comparably easy to check, but am too lazy or in too much pain to do so. If I had a drone like this I could, say, fly it over my oven to make sure I turned it off.

    As it is, most things I can put on the IoT or run through z-wave (mainly my locks and thermostats) I have. I have WiFi cameras (that I'm working on moving to exclusively self hosted) pointed at my garage doors and some exterior doors whose locks I haven't put online so I can make sure the house is secured, the cars are in place, no one left the garage open, etc.

    I don't need a drone for any of that, but it could certainly help, especially from back before my surgery when there were times I legitimately could not stand up, let alone move around the house checking things.

    That said, as others have observed, if I were to buy this I would not go with an Amazon product.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 hours ago (3 children)
  • [–] 5 points 6 hours ago

    Thats really cool, after i make a selfhosted version.

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  • [–] 9 points 15 hours ago*

    Will people seriously let these things fly around inside their homes?

    What am I saying? Of course they will. They'll think they're cool.

    It's just the next step to desensitizing the next generation to more surveillance. We already have cars, delivery bots, and vacuum cleaners roaming around, filming everything, inside and out. Soon, we'll have delivery drones and these things doing the same, inside and out. "Oh, don't worry, we don't record it, honest!" Bullshit.

    You know what people use their security cameras for? From what I've seen on Nextdoor, they use them to ask questions about "suspicious" people on the sidewalk and street. They use them to record mementos of the occasional porch theft, because the cops won't do a thing about that, "I don't know who that is, do you? No? Well, what am I supposed to do about it?"

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  • [–] 4 points 2 hours ago

    Life becomes even more like a stealth game

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  • [–] 3 points 14 hours ago (1 child)

    This is giving me Cyberpunk 2077 vibes

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  • [–] 1 point 12 hours ago

    Yes! My first thought was of someone hacking these and making them crash into shit. In a game it would be to cause a distraction, but in the real world people would just do it to cause chaos for anyone dumb enough to buy one.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 hours ago

    Don't know why but the Terminator theme just started playing...

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  • I want a libre version of this that has no internet, and all local storage

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  • [–] 2 points 3 hours ago

    Blast teams incoming call (bass boost version) while flying this in the office.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 hours ago

    "...each containing 3 grams of shaped charge."

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU

    I have a wired Ring doorbell, no subscription, because it was free. But I'll be damned if I'd let one loose inside.

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  • [–] 1 point 12 hours ago

    Maybe create a society where 'security' drones are not necessary ? ..or you can oc just continue to hail and trust your corporate overlords..

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  • [–] 1 point 7 hours ago

    Well well well, say hello to my little* friend.

    **May not be little.

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