>>149024902
Robots ARE sentient in the film, they're not automatons. They can learn and grow and feel. They just need a little encouragement to do so, to snap them out of their routine. AUTO however was the only one who would not budge from his directives no matter what, WALL-E inspires everyone he meets in the film to break from their base directive and start living (from the humans also stuck in a waking trance of routine, down to the secretary robot he teaches to wave hello and goodbye). AUTO is completely static, hence why he has the MacInTalk electronic voice instead of a voice actor, he's meant to be the epitome of an automaton (organic or machine) who follows orders for orders sake.
His orders were not malevolent, and at the time they were given they were given to protect mankind, and he has done that for seven hundred years, they are all safe and comfortable, if stagnant, but the circumstances that caused his orders have changed, which he won't acknowledge.