From the description of this drone, it seems like its advantage is that a rigger can control it instead of an electronic guidance system. So say you're Joe rigger and you jump into one of these. You launch and are able to quite easily hit your target, despite electronic countermeasures. According to rules for destroying rigged drones, as soon as the missile blows up, you get dumpshock! Even if you're cold simming, that's stun damage and disorientation. That means that Joe rigger only has a few of these in him. Is this really the way it works? If so, what's so great about it?

Well, you could jump out and let the pilot run it into its target. On the other hand, you could just save it for when you're sure it's worth the dumpshock.

I'm not sure, I might rule that since you know it's going to explode with you jacked in even before you buy it, you shouldn't get dumpshock, or at least not as bad as usual...

rigger3 had similar weapons, basically rigger controlled ship to ship missiles.

iirc, they had a special near-impact system that would safely disconnect the rigger moments before impact so that the rigger didnt experience dumpshock.

I personally like the fact they are mini drones that do full missile damage. Its like that arm-mounted missile Iron Man used in size.

couldn't it just be AR controlled instead?

Blowing yourself up is supposed to hurt!

Not if you do it right.

I'm not saying the way it is, but the way it should be is that the safety disconnect gives you a -2 or something to the roll to hit, so that the truly hardcore can ride it all the way in and take dumpshock. Alternately, the truly hardcore get a bonus. Either way, there should be some way to override the safety feature and take dumpshock for a small advantage.