knight rider online

Hey, here's a new story about how far we've come in auto. tech...


Monday January 23, 2006 1:03 PM EST - By: Dave White
Via: CNET News





Michael Knight's favorite toy is more and more looking like reality. Knight, played by David Hasselhoff, was the driver of KITT, a voice-controlled car in the 1980s American television show Knight Rider. And with the proliferation of portable electronic gadgets and the desires of drivers wanting them in their moving vehicles and car manufacturers willing to fill this demand, the automotive industry seems to have finally caught up with KITT, some 20-odd years later.

Cell phones, MP3 players, satellite radio, PDAs, DVD players, mapping tools—it's all in someone's vehicle, to varying degrees. And car and truck makers, wanting to cash in on what is a growing trend, are taking note, offering the beginnings of voice-activated controls for all of these devices.

Steering wheel buttons are increasingly common, not only in luxury vehicles. And with advances in technology, KITT is on the horizon.

"There's fairly significant demand for 'button intensive' features in the car (like) dual climate zones and satellite radio," which has more than 120 channels, said Jim Pisz, national manager for partnerships at Toyota. "The future for us is in the ability to control all of these features by voice."

Toyota, always eager to be in the vanguard of new technologies, has entered into an agreement with VoiceBox, a voice-search specialist in America, to pursue voice-activated operation of vehicles. The agreement is now in the stage of developing natural-speech technologies for Toyota's cars. VoiceBox, also recently a partner with Johnson Controls and XM Satellite Radio, is on the forefront of a new digital wave of automobile functionality.

One main plan for VoiceBox is to improve the end-user experience of driving-directions applications, which are becoming standard in vehicles but which have limited vocabularies and functionalities. The software now being worked on is well on the way to meeting that standard, according to VoiceBox CEO Mike Kennewick.

"It looks for clues in what you're saying and what you've said before to infer what you want, just like a human would," Kennewick said.

When that functionality widens to let the driver feel in complete command and control via voice remains to be seen.


Great news for the conversion!

I guess "Knight Rider" was way ahead of its time, huh?

Well, that's cool. But some people already been doing some of this in the Conversion community. But to a much lesser extent. I hope some day to work on a project where I could load some AI program (Ultra Hal Assistant, for example) into an in-dash PC and have car with a voice and personality. Well, my car already has the personality. He just needs the voice.

I remember stuff that was in Sci-Fi shows like Star Trek and others that some of it was becoming reality. Robots, computers in the home, etc. We have all that now.

Lyn wrote:I guess "Knight Rider" was way ahead of its time, huh?

No, Knight Rider set the templete for the cars of the Future. I believe that 5 years from now that we have full blown cars just like Kitt. Even with the auto-pliot option.

THANK YOU LARSON

Hey, that would be so awsome to have a car that can talk to you *lol* and think of all the accidents it would save to have a car like K.I.T.T. If ya wanna have a beer ya wouldn't have to worry about drinkin' and drivin' cause the car could drive ya home *LOL* That would be SWEET! Personally, I don't like to drink, but think of all the lives that could be saved. Of course it would be hard for alot of folks to be able to afford a car like that. Still would be cool.

what no auto cruise

My car has auto cruise but where I live in the suburbs, and the busy roads, I don't get time to use it. In fact, half the time he's jumpin' between first and second gears. Doesn't get up to 3rd and overdrive (via Torque Converter Clutch) very often. If so, it's not for long.

And, my car's auto cruise is supposedly (I think) vacuum-based. I don't think it's computer operated. The engine is computer operated (like many Fuel-Injected cars) but I'm not sure about the transmission and auto cruise. Something has to be setting/resetting it when you use the stick thing for the setting.

In the almost 6 years I've owned the car, I've never once used the auto cruise. But, if I ever get an AI/In-Dash PC, I would love to have a button that says "Auto Cruise" on it, just like KITT might have. That'd be cool. In fact, folks with that in their cars could probably fashion something like that.

Turbo boost? Well, I'm not sure what that could be used for unless you have a turbo option on your car. Persuit mode, I don't know what function (at least on my car, which is a base model Pontiac 6000) that would be linked to.

It's fun to see what we can name on our own cars that is similar to KITT's functions.

do u think that when the movie comes
out theyll make a trans am kr edition

Look at the new 2008 Camaro concept car. They have just enough of a slit in the front nose under the hood where one could probably put in a scanner.

If I ever get a car that talks back to me.. I would want it sound like Dr. Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1. (But that is just me)

William Daniels all the way

Wizster wrote:William Daniels all the way

OH YEAH!!!! William Daniels for ME TOO! JUST WOULDN'T BE KITT WITHOUT HIM Hey, anyone know who does K.A.R.R.'s voice? I loved it when he said Damn *ROTFL*

KARR's voice was done by Peter Cullen in Trust Doesn't Rust. For KARR's voice in KITT vs. KARR, he was done by Paul Frees (who has since passed away). Paul Frees also used to do the voice of the Ghost Host at Disney's Haunted Mansion sometime after his work on Knight Rider.

For my car, I want something unique, different. Deep like KARR but not exactly like KARR. Something definitely original. I'm thinking of talking to some of the TTS voice providers and see how much they would charge to do a custom voice for my car.