NAVI (technology)

NAVI is a computer AI from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Gung Ho NAVI (left), Yukikaze NAVI (center) and DNAVI (right) lament their inability to drink sake.

A NAVI is a type of shipboard artificial intelligence used in Maximal and Predacon starships during the Beast Era. NAVIs possess limited autonomy of action—more than a "dumb" computer system like Sentinel, but less than a self-aware drone. This does not prevent them from possessing what might be termed an excess of personality, often forming strong attachments to their ship's crews or definite opinions that can shape how they choose to interpret orders. Typical NAVIs have the voice and intonation of cute little girls, though their personalities can range from stoic robots to demanding bitches.

Ambulatory NAVI units such as the one designed by Skywarp can sustain a NAVI's existence even after the ship housing its data banks has been destroyed.

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon

The Predacon computer onboard the Darksyde was referred to as "NAVI-ko" by Megatron and the other Predacons.

This is true only for the Japanese dub, in which the computer demonstrated a decidedly different personality than in the English version.

Yokohama Decepticon Secret Base comic

NAVI-ko later gained her own Transformer body with a dolphin beast mode (which she used to travel through time and space). Yokohama Decepticon Secret Base

Beast Wars II cartoon

NAVI was the computer for Lio Convoy's space craft, the Yukikaze. She originally had no corporeal form but was given a small, hovering LED screen for a body.

Beast Wars Neo cartoon

The NAVI for Big Convoy's ship, the Gung Ho, was virtually identical to the NAVI of the Yukikaze, save for having different colors for her LED body.

The Predacon ship, the Dinosaur, on the other hand, had DNAVI (short for Devil NAVI).

Known NAVIs

• 
  NAVI-ko
  (Beast Wars)
• 
  NAVI-ko
  ("Yokohama Decepticon Secret Base")
• 
  NAVI
  (Beast Wars II)
• 
  NAVI
  (Beast Wars Neo)
• 
  DNAVI
  (Beast Wars Neo)

Notes

• Although not definitely confirmed, it seems likely that the term "Navi" is derived from a line of dialogue from Megatron in "Beast Wars (Part 1)", when he asks the Darksyde computer: "Navigation! Is this the right planet?" It seems the Japanese production staff misconstrued (or deliberately repurposed) his declaration of "Navigation!" as use of an actual name, which was shortened to become "Navi".