KITT Buttons and Displays That Make No Sense

[Knight Industries 3000]

KITT is awesome, but there are some buttons and displays that make little sense. I'll name some. Feel free to join in, and/or to explain why these buttons and displays might actually make sense.

Aim Laser - This was a single button, right? How do you aim a laser by pushing a button?

Aud/Vid Playback - A single button would seem to be able to play back only a single recording. What about multiple recordings?

Auto Door - An "Auto Door" button makes little sense, because it would be almost as easy to simply manually open the door. An "Auto Door" display makes little sense, because if the door is opening, and no human is opening it, then you can guess that the door is opening automatically. You don't need to waste precious display space with a light to tell you what is easy enough to figure out.

Boost 2 / Turbo Boost - Doesn't "Pursuit Mode" give KITT a boost of horizontal speed? Why have a "Boost 2," and why make "Turbo Boost" have two separate functions -- "drive really fast" and "jump?"

Sub-Zero - What's the point? Why subzero? Why not just "freezing" or "sub -20 degrees Fahrenheit?"

[KnightRider2000]

The extra turbo boost button doesn't give KITT horizontal speed i bleive, i think it's just another one to make it easier to press (driver's preference).

Wev'e talked about the turbo boost button before and concluded that it might be time activated (press it quickly get a boost of speed, hold it for 1 seconds fly through the air). Horizontal turbo boost accelerates faster than pursuit mode, as you can see when michael hits turbo boost to make it go horizonatlly his boddy get pushed quickly back in the chair and he clenches his teeth (much like you would on a roller coaster).

What about Michael being shot in the arm like in KOTP? Wouldn’t you like to have a button that could open up the door for you without straining to lift your hurt arm to open the door?

All the buttons could come in quite handy at the right time, and remember when your the Knight Rider you gotta expect the unexpected.


-KnightRider2000

[themarvelous3]

especially if you cant remember WHICH arm it was you got shot in : )

[Michael Pajaro]

Some of the buttons can make a bit more sense when yuo consider that there is an AI system underneath everything. I admit it may be a bit of stretch for some of these rationalizations...

For example, "Aim Laser" wouldn't actually do the aiming, but rather put the car in a different mode where the radar/sonar/video systems were activated to prepare to fire a laser.

The same thing goes for "Aud/Vid Playback". When Michael hits the button, KITT assumes Michael wants the shot of the license plate or the face or whatever and KITT shows the appropriate footage.

"Sub Zero" could mean -5, -25, or -100 degrees. There are such things as "Sub Zero freezers" so I think they just used the same term already in common use.

"Auto Door" lights are good for troubleshooting if nothing else. Ever see blinking LEDs on the inside of a computer that nobody ever sees? If the auto door light was on but the door isn't moving, Bonnie could help track down the problem. As for why the display was so big: maybe those are actually buttons, so Michael could easily open the passenger door for someone.

That's my desperate shot at an explanation. I think the stranger buttons are the ones that just say A B C D or have no labels at all.

[TurbomanKnight]

Well according to Knight Rider the auto door function was made for Kitt.

[Knight Industries 3000]

Well according to Knight Rider the auto door function was made for Kitt.

Yes, but that function requires neither a button nor a display in order to work.

[excalibur]

Michael Pajaro wrote:

That's my desperate shot at an explanation. I think the stranger buttons are the ones that just say A B C D or have no labels at all.

I'm taking a guess at this, but maybe those buttons were for future use in case more functions or systems were added to KITT. Then a "blank" button could be used and labeled accordingly for the corresponding function/system that was added. If the control panel was limited in size to just contain the buttons that had a function, with no room for expansion, that could turn into a problem. So maybe they just had some extra buttons for this purpose???

[sarfraz]

especially if you cant remember WHICH arm it was you got shot in : )

I found it kept amusing that Micheal pressed buttons several times in Knight of the Drones, to see what it does.

Sarfraz

[TurbomanKnight]

In Trust Doesn't Rust when Michael and Karr was driving towards each other in the end, Kitt took over the controls in orderr to save Michael. Michael then say " oh no you don't " and presses the Normal Cruise button twice and then it shows his finger hitting the button.

[growup]

The ultimate button that makes no sence is Michael. Kitt is fully self aware and capable of doing everything Michael does( in the car ). Kitt also communicates with others, controls other cars automotive functions as well as scan through walls. If Kitt is supposed to be the automotive equivalent of a super computer why have a person press a button? Can't Kitt assess a situation, figure the solution and implement the answer faster than any human. What function did Michael have except to press the buttons?

[kido]

He has what Kitt don't,the cop's instinct.

[growup]

Well said, instinct is the one thing computers cant' mimic...yet. That doesn't do it for me. Why have Michael do anything inside the car? Kitt can without doubt dive itself better then Michael. So why have him turn the wheel? Or for that matter push any of the buttons. Since there was a voice link why the need for buttons and displays?

[themarvelous3]

BECAUSE IT LOOKED COOL!!

DON'T SMASH MY DREAMS, PEOPLE : )

[TurbomanKnight]

lol hahahahahah

[K.A.R.R. Fan]

the buttons/displays next to KITTs voicebox don't make any sense.
OIL, P1, P2, P3 etc. they don't display anything special or change colour

[aussieknight]

Nor the "7DLA" or "6RM", etc buttons. How did Ski mode get it's name? It's hardly skiing, after all. And let's not mention the fact that the season 4 dash had a single row of buttons for two functions per button pod.

[jup]

I've always heard that the stunt for driving a four wheeled vehicle on two wheels was called a Ski Stunt. So, it seems logical that the 'function' would be named after the stunt name.

As for KITT being self governing, that's not totally true. Sure, KITT COULD have been able to do most everything. But, 'his makers' were so afraid that he might go rogue that they built tons of safety features into him. He was, quite literally, a victom of having to have a Human pilot at the wheel. Even KARR had this...though, to a far lesser extent.

[CB2001]

You think that's confusing: For the "Knight Rider" bloopers, they show a button being pushed that says "Auto Suck".

[kido]

There were "?" buttons somewhere in the KOTP pics on here: http://www.knightreplicas.com/library/KITTandKARR.asp

[Michael Pajaro]

Also, button-pressing still remains one of the most efficient user-interfaces ever developed. With an AI system operating behind the scenes of a button, it can be better than providing verbal commands.

[aussieknight]

In reference to those pics on this site: http://www.knightreplicas.com/library/KITTandKARR.asp
I'd sure like to find out who did the 3D models. I don't believe they know who did them still. Obviously my avatar is one of those pics, and I'd gladly give the person credit if I knew who to give it to.

[jup]

Also, button-pressing still remains one of the most efficient user-interfaces ever developed.

How true. Voice recognition technology has improved over the years. But, not to a 100% reliability rate. Point-and-click mouse technology has it's limitations and is better suited for other applications. Same goes for light pen tech. Touch screen tech is pitiful with way too many examples of poor alignment. (Plus, touching the glass screen just feels weird.) The giving feel of the key button just seems like the best interface...to date. (Granted, the QWERTY keyboard is not exactly the best layed out interface...being an outdated idea that dates back to the nineteenth century. (On second thought, I'm questioning my memories on when QWERTY was invented to make the manual typewriter easier to use and not so likely to jam at high rates of typing speed. Should investigate it.))

EDIT:

Here's some QWERTY history:

http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/

[Knight Industries 3000]

Also, button-pressing still remains one of the most efficient user-interfaces ever developed. With an AI system operating behind the scenes of a button, it can be better than providing verbal commands.

Buttons are great interfaces... for certain types of functions, mainly those that can simply be switched on or off -- e.g., a car's cruise control -- or those that offer a variety of options from which a user can select one or more -- e.g., selecting your favorite pre-set radio station on your car's stereo.

If KITT were real, some of KITT's functions that are seen to be controlled by pushbuttons would probably be better served by other types of controls. In today's world, KITT's "TV screens" would probably be touch-sensitive, dynamic displays, akin to a windows-based operating system's interface. Easily controlled functions that would need to be activated at a moment's notice, like Turbo Boost, would be better controlled by a pushbutton, but functions that would require a more complicated user interface, like "aud/vid playback," would be better handled by the display screen.

In essence, the controls of a realistically designed KITT extrapolated from today's technology would probably more closely resemble a contemporary police cruiser's interior than they would resemble Darth Vader's bathroom... even though Darth Vader's bathroom looks cooler.

[jup]

I've often thought that the notion of placing key functions on the Gull Wing was the best choice of all. After all, when Michael is going to do a Turbo Boost jump, which is the better movement to do? Take the right hand off the 'wheel', float it over a foot-plus over to this bank of buttons, take the eyes off the road to verify that the finger is going for the right button, stab that button at the same second the eyes return to the road and take off -=OR=- reach with reflex via the thumb to a small button on the Gull Wing (without having to look at the Wing) to perform the split-second timing move? (KITT could always keep the button deactive when it's obviously not needed to avoid those accidental presses.)

[Knight2000]

With the buttons, they're there because you can use them without KITT being there to control everything.

If you remember Soul Survivor, that Randy character was able to control the Knight 2000 even though KITT wasn't installed.


The lights either side of the voice box such as Air and Oil were probably indicators. Although we never saw it happen, if KITT ran low on Oil or had problems somewhere, it is likely that this would blink or something like that. Ditto with the other lights around the voice box.

The Turbo Boost button was in such a position that Michael had to simply extend his index finger to press the button. I refuse to believe it can also be used for speed increases and put anything like that down to bloopers.

Boost 2 and Rocket Boosters seemed to serve pretty much the same function - to create a sudden burst of acceleration, so one should replace the other.

I agree with the Auto Door thing. There was no need for them to be buttons - they could simply be indicators instead, indicating that a door was in the process of opening/closing.

What I wanna know is what all the overhead console buttons were for. They were all label-less and yet if Michael needed the grappling hook or something else, the button for it would automatically appear.