The Age Old Question: Can a working KITT Actually be Built?

[KnightRider2000]

After doing a little bit of research of wanted to share my findings with the Knight Rider community. What did I research? If KITT, or a car could possibly be created today.



1) Today’s hydraulics systems make it possible for a car to be able to travel on two wheel, providing that the car is moving to create balance, much like on a bicycle. (Ski Mode)

2) Scientists are working on new ways to create new incredibly strong materials much like bulletproofing but even stronger. (MBS).

3) A computer has been made hooked up to a truck that can drive the vehicle around obstacles in the road. In California you might also see 5 Buicks driving in procession, and people in them are drinking coffee, reading the paper and even taking naps, these cars are driven by magnetic rods in the ground that move them. Also cars are now coming out with voice recognition and GPS (KITT’s AI and GPS).

4) A flying car has been made that uses jets to propel it up into the air. Also the marine jet, the Harrier can lift off vertically with jets. Rockets have been also added to cars to make them go faster. It is stated in Bernoulli’s principle that a moving stream of air has less pressure in it then a non-moving stream. If a car traveled fast enough at an incredible acceleration, it can actually “jump” in the air (there is higher pressure on the bottom of the car pushing it up and lower on the top), that is why Indy cars have huge spoilers and are wide, so the have more traction and don’t jump, and in the beginning they did lift off the ground (KITT’s turbo boost).

5) Infrared, night vision, radar, x-rays, cameras, and others sensors have been made to fit in one whole unit. The whole unit sort of makes a “scanner” and can pick up data, just like the rovers on Mars (KITT’s scanner).

6) Ejection seats have been installed in various aircrafts and even in some cars. (KITT’s ejection seat).

We could go on forever on all the technology that is available for us today. So is KITT really possible? Well in my opinion if someone had enough money and enough resources a fully functional KITT could be made and used. What do you think?


-KnightRdier2000

[themarvelous3]

it wouldnt be kitt though. not till they figure out the last most important detail...ACTUAL A.I.

i wont be satisfied until i can talk to my car, NOT know its a computer (except if it points it out to me) and i can program it with William Daniels' voice

[growup]

A.I. not withstanding I doubt the possibility of a creation as you have discussed. Each entity you described preformed one particular function. Not the multitude that were shown on the show. Furthermore I believe it's a matter of space. We all know the limitation of a vehicle. Making a vehicle perform additional functions means adding more equipment that takes up space and adds weight. At a certain point all the additional equipment and weight override the ability of other systems requiring them to be modified. A vicious circle develops

[kido]

Besides,it would cost too much.

[TurbomanKnight]

Give scientists another couple of years some dough and suggestions and lets see what turns out.

[jup]

Yes. Actual AI is the stumbling point. I expect NASA to be the place that it would come from.

I think that most everything else that made KITT...KITT was possible way back in 1984. (Even auto pilot. Though, the van back then could only travel a few feet an hour. Today, it does 70 MPH!) The only thing that has changed since then is how those technologies have improved. (Faster/lighter/stronger.) (Well, Microjam will probably remain a piece of sci-fi for awhile longer...)

[Michael Pajaro]

We basically have the technolofy to build a car that can take over for the driver under most normal circumstances. But it's the unusual circumstances that really bring the technology to a halt. It's very easy for a human to determine if a vehicle is stuck in traffic, disabled, or doule-parked and then act accordingly; it's much more difficult for a computer to make those decisions. And even if you could build a car that was safe 99% of the time, that means one day every three months it would get in an accident.

I submit that it does not require "intelligence" to create a driverless car. Most driving under normal circumstances is pure mathematical algorithms. Given the proper data from sensors (GPS, radar, video imaging) a good high school student should be able to write a program to control the motion of a car. Problems develop when the car is put in a situation that the sensors can't explain.

Here's a big test: could a driverless car follow commands given to it by a police officer standing in the street? Until we are able to develop a level of intelligence on top of the basic driving abilities, we won't have KITT.

[KnightRider2000]

Well at least we know that through tests performed by the racing industry that develops new cars, that turbo boost in indeed possible. Odds are that the rockets will probably need refueling after one jump and probably the car can’t jump over anything higher than a regular car, but the main point is it can be done.

Micro Jam wouldn’t be that hard. If a beam of ionized waves reached an electrical device, it could short it out, especially since European scientists have developed ion engines.

The MBS (or something like it) is very likely. Just this month a German scientist has developed transparent aluminum (another Star Trek prediction comes true, if you saw The Voyage Home), and this substance is stronger than regular steel.

Of course the problem does arise when we try to fit all this stuff in a car. However micro technology has taken the radio from a big desk set to the palm of our hands, cell phones from the size of a pack of Ritz Crackers, to the size of a small wristwatch. Who knows, it believe it will only be a matter of time before all of KITT’s functions will be obsolete, which makes me sad that the wonder of our favorite super car may one day disappear.


-KnightRider2000