My Personal Biggest Knight Rider Question

[Scorp]

Okay, I am going to ask The Big Question that has always plagued me, even when I was in fourth-grade in the '80s watching KR and idolizing every aspect of it. This is a major issue in my head, and while I love a flippant response as much as the next guy, I want to know your serious opinion on this.

What's up with KITT slacking off on the scanner?!

Let me illustrate. KITT has some unknown range that seems to fluctuate with every episode. I know certain factors contribute to it, such as whether he is in Pursuit or Normal mode, as well as environmental factors, etc. But it seems as if sometimes, he loses track of a suspect or car after two miles, and sometimes he loses track once they go around the corner twenty yards ahead. This has always bugged me to no end.

Further, wouldn't KITT's primary function when Michael goes off to do something be to monitor both Michael and the surrounding area for danger. You know, obvious things such as knives, guns, explosives, etc. It seems as though, even after they show a nice shot of the scanner tracking back and forth, KITT never seems to catch everything that's going on.

Here's an example from today's episode ("Knight By A Nose"): Michael goes to confront the corrupt horse doctor, and while he does this, the corrupt partner is loading the horse into the trailer for a getaway. The corrupt partner then proceeds to set the stable aflame.

KITT never says a thing. It takes a woman shrieking like a ninny to alert Michael to all the crazy goings-on in the back. Shouldn't KITT be monitoring this?? Shouldn't his scanner notice the biological "signature" of the corrupt partner, or at the very least, the fire??

I know, I know. If KITT "knew" everything, it would make the show less action-packed and suspenseful. But I'm kind of a stickler for consistency, even in my action TV shows. I love KITT 'til the end, and I still watch and love every episode. But on those occasions where a car get two blocks ahead and KITT says "Sorry, Michael, I've lost him," I grimace.

Forget Auto Cash Dispensers, Bonnie. Leave the Reflective plates and half-baked lasers alone. Concentrate on boosting the scanner, and make it more consistent!!

What do you all think?

[knightimmortal]

They can enhance KITT's scanners to death. But then it would be a short program, if KITT said 'Michael this' and 'Michael that', and alerted Michael to everything, and could do everything, then Michael would be able to catch the bad guy, in the first fifteen minutes, and then you would have 45 minutes of trying to figure out what to do.

So, in program theory, I have to say that it is KITT's AI that is at fault. He chooses to look at the wrong thing at the wrong time, and it leads to a longer chase.

KI

[Katt]

Have to add in lead too, they always said Kitt could neverscan through lead, which bugged the heck out of me, if he's so high tech why can't he scan through lead?! Seems like FLAG with all it's hi tech stuff would be able to fix that!

But, KI's right, if he knew everything, and warned michael of every little thing, it would of made for a very boring series.

[jup]

I like the way they answer this in Trust Doesn't Rust the best, when Bonnie makes her escape and Tony notices it, then questions KARR why he didn't try to do anything. And KARR replies, "I was busy watching you deactivate The Rev."

Just goes to show that KITT's scanners isn't the miracle see-all that it should be. When you think about it, it was usually Michael's idea to even use the more advanced scanning stuff such as X-Ray mode and Infrared mode and such. It also supports my theory that all of KITT's systems were running off of battery power and to use all that equipment all the time would run this battery down too quickly. (I have no idea why the turbine engine couldn't support a charging system. Makes no sense. Unless, it has to do with the type of battery used. As mentioned in the novel form of TDR, KARR's batteries are some sort of super experimental deal. And, because of their lack of maintenance, they become these incredibly unstable time bombs. In fact, it is those batteries exploding that is the cause of KARR's mystery explosion as he goes over the cliff. But, if the episode had made that bit clear, then KvsK would be an impossible episode to sell, as KARR's interior would have been totally torched and his personality would have been totally unable to interface with anything...nor would the engine even start up.)

[LMolineux]

Ah well the Engine had to do some sort of recharging to the batteries if you ask me because how else would KITT keep on going without a recarge from the engine like in a normal car KITT wasnt built with solar panels or a plug intot he wall 24/7 so he obviously had to have a generator or a altinator or somethign along those lines because what is to say he is to talk and his batteries go dead. Help me out please on this one?

[knightimmortal]

Well, here is one thing that is pretty standard to a car, yeah, KITT would have had an alternator, so the engine did have to support a lot of the incoming power. As for those bloody novels, see what I mean about creating things that create more problems for the canonical way we saw things on the show, and therefore they are hard to accept as canon?

And who says that KITT/KARR didn't have solar cell additions, just because they didn't have what we would see as solar cells/panels, doesn't mean that there couldn't have been a variation built into the system.

KI

[KITTvsKARR]

Well.. about the lead comment.. Superman couldn't see through it either!! Maybe it has some sort of magical properties. lol. And I destinctly remember in a couple of episodes that KITT mentions that he needs to recharge his power packs.. making it sound like he has powere cells that go for so long, then you need to recharge like an electric car. But one thing that always bothered me was, KITT is supposed to be fully fuel efficient.. but yet they NEVER mention or show him being gassed up.. just because hes fully fuel efficient doesn't mean he doesn't need gas.. just means he doesn't pollute. Anyone help me out here?

[knightimmortal]

No Big Thing. They not only fill him up, the fill him up in a place different from where we all thought his gas tank was.

KI

[KITTvsKARR]

Hmm.. I think I have that one.. I'll have to pop it in and watch it.. I don't remember that... Ok.. thanks.

[Rockatteer]

if he's so high tech why can't he scan through lead?!

In the real world lead is a "dead" metal, (formed as the end product of radio active decay) which means that it blocks all frequencies of wave signals...from very low radio signals right up to ultra high light and radiation signals or waves

So in short....nothing will go through it.... this is the reason it's used in X-ray rooms, and also in the jackets the X-ray operaters wear to protect themselves from stray x-rays

So its quite accurate that Kitts scanners would not go through lead.

[KITTvsKARR]

Nicely put.

[jup]

I destinctly remember in a couple of episodes that KITT mentions that he needs to recharge his power packs.. making it sound like he has powere cells that go for so long, then you need to recharge like an electric car. But one thing that always bothered me was, KITT is supposed to be fully fuel efficient.. but yet they NEVER mention or show him being gassed up.. just because hes fully fuel efficient doesn't mean he doesn't need gas..

Precisely. What would be the point of KITT's first season complaint about having to recharge his batteries if the engine could do that while it was running. Like I said, it doesn't make sense to me why the engine couldn't do such a thing. But, I also suspect that in Trust Doesn't Rust, if KITT's egine could recharge the batteries, then the laser wouldn't be limited to the number of shots...period, it would only be able to fire once per so many minutes/hours.

I think the other recharge reference comes from Knight Sting, where it was used as an excuse to patch into the private CCTV system, rather than actually recharging the batteries.

As for the fuel conservation, I seem to recall some figure stating that KITT could go one hundred miles to the gallon. Not sure where I remember that one from.

[KITTvsKARR]

Well.. there was an ep at the end where Michael asks KITT if he wants to go for a drive.. and KITT says hes tired and needs to recharge his power packs.. anyone know what ep that was?

[knightimmortal]

Well, have you ever had an electrical problem on your car? The alternator off of a Yugo is not going to run a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. An alternator can only do so much charging, and a pull like that of KITT's systems would drain sufficiently. He would generally need a recharging. (A large majority of power sources, no matter how powerful, need recharging.) KITT, to run his systems strictly off of his alternator, would need a giant alternator just to keep up.

KI

[jup]

OK, KI. I see what you are saying. However, wouldn't Kitt just advise Michael to place him in some sort of sleep mode while Michael drove instead of advising a recharge period, if that were the case?

Another notion strikes me as being possible. KITT's batteries could be something so special that any vehicle generator would never do. It would be like trying to substiture a power plant's supply with a nine volt battery. Maybe the charging unit eats 440 for breakfast?

[knightimmortal]

There is always the miracle possibility of specialty this, and specialty that, just like solar cells, and static generators. In fact, those ARE the specialty this and specialty that, since they were not developed in the 80s' as well as they are today.

Generally, trying to apply simple vehicle concepts to KITT is just like comparing apples to oranges, simply put.

KI

[Rockatteer]

wouldn't Kitt just advise Michael to place him in some sort of sleep mode while Michael drove instead of advising a recharge period?

That could explain such things as Kitt not always warning Micheal off all danger and also why the scanner light was not always working etc....Kitt was running with minimal systems to allow the batterys to recharge or just running in sleep mode to save power until Micheal calls him.