- "Stupid wheel!"
- —Captain B. McCrea, after AUTO has confined him to his quarters
- "Give me The Plant."
- —AUTO
AUTO is the autopilot for the Axiom and is one of the characters in the film, WALL•E. It is designed to never abandon any of its directives. Although it seems to be a helpful source of artificial intelligence, AUTO is programmed to follow out Shelby Forthright’s Directive A-113 and to never abandon it or any other directive, doing everything in its power to stop the Axiom from returning to Earth.
Appearance[]
AUTO appears to be a white robotic steering wheel with 5 arms and one red eye like a cyclops, which is used for scanning the EVE probe. Some arm appears to be for tapping, one as a claw, and one as a taser. AUTO also shifts on a "rail" seen on the ceiling of the bridge. On the rest of the head, there are small colorful lights blinking while idling.
WALL•E[]
AUTO is a robot built by the Buy N Large Corporation and designed to function as the autopilot aboard the Axiom, complete with a deep-pitched voice synthesizer. Like other autopilots, it appears to be shaped like a sailing ship's steering wheel and assists a ship's captain with his or her duties. Due to its programming, AUTO works against Captain B. McCrea, EVE, and WALL•E.
Aboard the Axiom, AUTO ran most of the ship's functions (with the ship's computer) due to the captain's severe obesity, but also was secretly charged with enacting Directive A-113. AUTO has the secret order (Directive A-113) to never return to Earth due to the cleanup being a failure; however, an EVE unit returns to the Axiom with the plant, confirming that Earth is habitable and that the cleanup was successful after all. AUTO responds by informing the captain of the discovery, while its subordinate GO-4 was ordered to steal the plant from the deactivated EVE's internal container to make it seem like she was defective, and dispose of it in a life-pod. After being ordered to scan EVE, it detects nothing and then falsely claims that EVE's memory is faulty. The captain ordered that EVE would be sent to maintenance and, upon spotting WALL•E, sends him along too.
As night fell, AUTO found the captain researching about Earth and deactivated the computer, wishing the captain a good night, but AUTO then reactivated the computer while McCrea sleeps. Soon, AUTO is summoned by the captain, revealing that EVE had retrieved the plant and ordered that he would fire up the holo-detector for the Axiom to return to Earth. AUTO attempted to seize the plant, but this only made the captain suspicious and demanded answers. AUTO is reluctant at first, but then allows the captain to view a top secret video that Shelby Forthright sent to the autopilots 700 years before. The captain is shocked and tries to convince AUTO that things have changed on Earth, but upon watching images of past captains, he realizes AUTO's intentions. AUTO is still driven by its directive and, deciding to take matters in its own hands, orders GO-4 to seize the plant with a force-field, but EVE draws her weapon at the steward at the captain's command. GO-4 attempts to toss the plant down the garbage chute, only for WALL•E to catch it as he was climbing up the chute. As WALL•E held the plant in his chassis, saving it and refusing to hand it over to AUTO; in retaliation, AUTO uses its built-in taser to electrocute WALL•E, frying his motherboard and sending him down the garbage chute. AUTO has GO-4 bring it EVE so as to deactivate her, and send her down the chute as well before locking the captain in his room. However, a severely injured WALL•E, (with the plant still in his chassis) was saved by EVE, who rebooted her systems, and both were saved by M-O and the WALL-A's, and made it back to the upper decks. When a Steward catches a picture of EVE and WALL•E with the plant, AUTO summons multiple Steward Bots on the ship to stop them. At the same time, the captain tries to communicate where to bring the plant before AUTO cuts him off. The captain then commands AUTO directly, tricking it into thinking he had the plant, using the image captured by EVE's vision with WALL•E holding the plant for her. AUTO was fooled into going down into his room. The captain fights AUTO for control of the Axiom, but AUTO manages to wrench itself free by spinning its wheel, causing the Axiom to tilt, which also causes WALL•E and EVE to miss the holo-detector. AUTO then activates a button that closes the holo-detector, crushing and injuring WALL•E, who is struggling to jam it from closing. The captain manages to reach AUTO and engage it in another fight. Having had enough of McCrea's fighting, AUTO attempts to taser him as soon as the captain calls his name for the last time. AUTO is finally defeated when the captain switches AUTO's mode from auto to manual, turning it into a normal steering wheel. McCrea then spins the now-deactivated AUTO to straighten the ship.
Trivia[]
- AUTO's eye is an obvious homage to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Not only do AUTO and HAL both share the central red eye, but they also both share a secret directive which they attempt to carry out, regardless of the effects of the secret directive towards humans.
- AUTO is unusual among many Pixar antagonists, as it was merely following orders rather than trying to threaten the protagonists; however, it is still willing to use violence if necessary. It was found in the 10 of the Worst theme section in Pixarpedia.
- Apple’s MacInTalk software was used to voice AUTO.
- AUTO originally had a different design, which is featured in the deleted storyboard scenes.
Gallery[]
