Turbo Boost question

[Assasinge]

I don't know if this has been asked before or not but in season 1 I believe sometimes when Michael pressed turbo boost it caused KITT to get literally a boost or something in his speed. Did they ever explain how TB had two different uses? And how did that even work if it's meant to lift KITT off the ground anyway?

[Knight Racer]

If I were to take a guess, the decision would have to be made by the on board computer Kitt, to determine if the knight 2000 body is to jump or get a burst of speed. If there was an obstacle in the way, Kitt would command the car to jump. If nothing was in the way, it would be use the turbo as speed.

[Assasinge]

Well that does make sense, for the most part. But if that's the case, isn't pursuit mode suppose to increase his speed too? Or is turbo boost suppose to act as some sort of nitro type thing, you know like in the need for speed games where you can use nitro. I'm not sure, they never really explained so once again we're left speculating for ourselves.

[Knight Racer]

Well pursuit mode was used for a burst of constant speed but we never saw Michael switch back to normal mode. Kitt also had a set of rocket boosters that did the same thing. Come to think of it, Kitt had many systems that did similar functions. In speed demons, Kitt had high traction drop downs which April installed to raise the car with hydraulics and make the tires larger. In hills of fire, Bonnie installed spikes that stick out of the tires to improve traction going uup hills. Even super pursuit mode was an advanced version of pursuit mode. We never saw Michael use regular pursuit mode when super pursuit mode was an option so why even have the bottom for pursuit mode on the dash anymore?

[Assasinge]

I would assume it was because the creators just left it for our own speculation...

[jup]

Actually...there are a number of variables to consider.

1) Kitt was partially capable of interpreting the driving conditions and the best approach for the situation. Which makes Knight Racer's answer correct.

2) It can be hard to come up with the 'gadget of the week' upgrade for so many episodes. So, there are going to be a lot of similar solutions that involve speed this and speed that. Which makes Knight Racer's second answer also correct.

3) There's a lot of plot holes and things left to our imagination present throughout the series. Making Assasinge's answer quite correct.

4) And then there is another phenomenon that is reached via the research that people have put in, concerning the placement of buttons upon the dash. That Turbo Button jumps around. I mean, a whole lot. At some points, Michael could simply slam his palm into the whole cluster and easily hit several of them at once. Which means that this generic Turbo Boost button does this function and that generic Turbo Boost button does that function and another Tur...and so forth. In fact, the dash is so full of these specific function key buttons that any practical angle could be stabbed at with just one press. Alas, it just gets worse and worse when spliced together episodes intermix Prototype episode one dashboard buttons with season two dashes and season's three and four jump around from any old footage they feel will get the job done. In essence, this show was meant to be viewed on an old, 80s tube television, coming from the broadcast feed with zero pause/rewind ability and without any VCR or most definitely no season sets on these futuristic, plastic discs for our use. The 80's viewer was meant to quickly absorb the entertainment and then only ponder if they actually saw what they thought they did without the slightest ability to further inspect any evidence. I mean, my favorite 'mistake' comes from season four. In a totally useless shot, KITT drives by so that we see the driver's side section. The glossy paint is so reflective, we get a perfect mirror image of the crew and the camera rigging. It doesn't break the fourth wall...but it does break both the illusion and some kind of wall for one quick second. Totally useless and had to be edited in on purpose. It's from the POV of those fuzzy images that came over the broadcast airwaves that we were bound to miss those extra special cameos from 'Thing' or the time that KARR's tweeter turned red or when the weakest part of the wall (that KITT would crash through) was so weak, a blind man could have seen it. Alas, I just kind of back off from the question of how Kitt knows what to do with Turbo Boost on each situation after I ponder how he gets fifty different points of view to work with while in a chase scene...long before he ever got the world's first drone to gripe about.

[Assasinge]

That Turbo Button jumps around. I mean, a whole lot. At some points, Michael could simply slam his palm into the whole cluster and easily hit several of them at once.

Now that I think of it, if Michael were to slam all the buttons at once, do you think KITT might malfunction maybe? Or will he start to spas out entirely going crazy on the road?

[jup]

One cannon moment that I am reminded of comes from the time that a lion cub got inside of Kitt's cabin. Kitt expressly requests that the Turbo Boost was not to be pressed. This is probably the best moment to call from about how vulnerable KITT was to the use of those buttons. It is played off for laughs and nothing happens from it...except I do believe that Kitt eventually utilizes an interior refrigerator function to drive the cat off with.

A second cannon moment can come from Karr, when he is threatening to kill someone by either the method of a pure vacuum or by cooking her to death. These two examples might state that Karr had the ability to totally override the dash buttons while Kitt was more of a slave to them.

However, there was another moment when Michael had to steal KITT and the pure process of just turning the engine on came down to a reasoning game of trust. So that counters KITT's slavery notion. Plus, in Killer KITT, we get to see that those button interfaces could be deactivated.

You know what? The more I think about it, the more I realize there are multiple points of evidence that state Kitt only had partial say about the dash board interface AND Kitt had complete control over those buttons. So, I would theorize that should a bunch of conflicting button commands come in at once, no such shorts or errors would occur. KITT is just too well designed to be broken in that way. (Be it via the AI's override power or just safety protocols.)

[Assasinge]

Damn, on point. Okay, thanks!