Ring says its Drone Cam will fly entirely on AI autopilot when it reaches customers in January, with no manual controls available. The confirmation follows a CBS Mornings demonstration in which an early version of the drone crashed twice while being piloted by hand through a mobile app with integrated controls.
The segment, published on Threads, shows Ring founder Jamie Siminoff letting technology reporter Jo Ling Kent fly the drone manually. In the first crash, Ring told CBS News that the drone’s collision avoidance technology malfunctioned, and the company declined to share the video the drone recorded before the crash. CBS News captured the second crash on camera, showing the drone hitting a wall after it failed to respond to manual controls.
Siminoff said in the video that the second crash happened because the drone lost internet connectivity, which it also depends on to fly autonomously. He said the drone is supposed to stop and land when it loses connectivity, and that it did not do so in that instance.
Ring declined to show its own app during a demonstration of the Drone Cam for The Verge, saying the drone only works on pre-programmed flight paths. Manual flight controls appear to have been included at some point in development, but Ring will not offer the feature to customers at launch.
Ring spokesperson Sam McGee said in a statement that the company explored many features during development, and that autonomous flight to patrol points using the AI Pilot offers the best customer benefit and experience. Ring did not answer whether the decision to drop manual controls came after the CBS News demo.
The Drone Cam is a home security product that flies around a customer’s home on its own, and the January launch will be the first time US buyers can get it. The CBS demonstration put a spotlight on how the drone behaves when its connectivity fails, a scenario Ring says its autopilot is designed to handle by stopping and landing.
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