Normal Cruise to Normal

[alexmain_za]

Hi, I am not sure if this has been mentioned before. But has anybody else noticed that the "Normal Cruise" light under KITT's voice modulator changed from Normal Cruise to Normal at the beginning of season 4 (even before he was destroyed)?

[J-Knight]

hmm never noticed that, i'll need to get it out and check it out

[HungarianKnight]

I don't understand this change. I mean, Normal Cruise means a specific speed which could be achieved by the pilot. It is a cruising speed. On the other hand, Pursuit means a much greater speed. Kitt can achieve this speed in Auto Cruise as well, as he drives much better than any humans.

In Season 4, it seems that there is Normal, which is like Nurmal Cruise and Pursuit speeds combined plus Super Pursuit Mode. They never use "Normal Pursuit" in Season 4. This is just stupid...


Anyway, Kitt gets a new nose too in Season 4. It's smaller and not so "pointy" like the original one and the fog lights are more visible...

[Lost Knight]

Hi, I am not sure if this has been mentioned before. But has anybody else noticed that the "Normal Cruise" light under KITT's voice modulator changed from Normal Cruise to Normal at the beginning of season 4 (even before he was destroyed)?

I think this is because the mock-up dashboard that was used for close-ups was different from the one in the actual car. But K.I.T.T. has gone through inexplicable facelifts in every season premiere anyway. In Season 2, the overhead console was much slimmer in the premiere than it was in Season 1. And only in "Knight Of the Phoenix" can you notice that the switch pods have numbers instead of function names. Season 4 just had another one of these changes.

[J-Knight]

Wow thanks Lost Knight for that Knight of the Phoenix Blooper I've never noticed that one either. Is there a specific scene where you can see "normal" and then "Normal cruise"?

[Akaihiryuu]

They never really clarified in the show exactly what pursuit does. Pursuit doesn't make the car go any faster in and of itself...it merely allows manual control at higher speeds by having KITT assist the driver in controlling the car rather than controlling it completely (auto). In auto, there's no need for pursuit, as KITT is in complete control, and he can obviously react far far faster than any human. In pursuit, the driver has control over the car for the most part, but KITT uses his far superior reaction time to assist the driver with subtle adjustments to acceleration, braking, steering, etc. Super pursuit changes the car's configuration and basically requires the pursuit combination manual/auto control...there's no way a human would be able to do the things that mode is capable of without KITT's assistance. So super pursuit could be engaged from either pursuit or auto mode. I think it would've made a lot more sense to label pursuit "assist"...it would describe what it does. A lot of people think it increases the power of the car or something when it does not, it merely puts it into a hybrid mode where KITT has partial control, compared to normal mode where the driver is completely in control...KITT would not be able to override the driver in normal without changing modes first. I don't think pursuit allows KITT to completely override the driver as it's more of an assist mode, so he would probably have to go into auto to override. So in a nutshell, with pursuit mode, Michael wouldn't have had to be an excellent driver to make the car do the things it did...KITT would be able to make the necessary adjustments to prevent loss of control during high speed maneuvers. And even in normal mode, KITT could switch modes if necessary to help out, unless that was prevented with manual override, which was really only used once or twice in the whole series.

[Lost Knight]

Wow thanks Lost Knight for that Knight of the Phoenix Blooper I've never noticed that one either. Is there a specific scene where you can see "normal" and then "Normal cruise"?

In "Killer K.I.T.T.," for example, I've noticed that certain wide shots of the dashboard show "Normal Cruise" on the modulator. But in every close-up, it's of course never there. I'm pretty sure that goes for the entire season. So keep a lookout any time you see a wide shot of the actual dashboard in the car throughout Season 4.

Also, I suspect the modulator was changed because some of the LEDs were a bit dull in the third season. I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed what I'm talking about, but in a lot of Season 3 episodes some parts of the bars in K.I.T.T.'s modulator look a little dim when he speaks. I suspect they finally got around to fixing that once they had a new budget for the fourth season. So I guess while they were at it, they tweaked the "Normal" light on the mock-up too.

[Squirrel3D]

They never really clarified in the show exactly what pursuit does. Pursuit doesn't make the car go any faster in and of itself...it merely allows manual control at higher speeds by having KITT assist the driver in controlling the car rather than controlling it completely (auto). In auto, there's no need for pursuit, as KITT is in complete control, and he can obviously react far far faster than any human. In pursuit, the driver has control over the car for the most part, but KITT uses his far superior reaction time to assist the driver with subtle adjustments to acceleration, braking, steering, etc. Super pursuit changes the car's configuration and basically requires the pursuit combination manual/auto control...there's no way a human would be able to do the things that mode is capable of without KITT's assistance. So super pursuit could be engaged from either pursuit or auto mode. I think it would've made a lot more sense to label pursuit "assist"...it would describe what it does. A lot of people think it increases the power of the car or something when it does not, it merely puts it into a hybrid mode where KITT has partial control, compared to normal mode where the driver is completely in control...KITT would not be able to override the driver in normal without changing modes first. I don't think pursuit allows KITT to completely override the driver as it's more of an assist mode, so he would probably have to go into auto to override. So in a nutshell, with pursuit mode, Michael wouldn't have had to be an excellent driver to make the car do the things it did...KITT would be able to make the necessary adjustments to prevent loss of control during high speed maneuvers. And even in normal mode, KITT could switch modes if necessary to help out, unless that was prevented with manual override, which was really only used once or twice in the whole series.

But see my thing is....and maybe it's me...but it makes you think sometimes that Michael is in control at such speeds during some scenes.

If there is a pursuit mode....and it's suppose to make KITT be "in pursuit" of say the enemy or whatever.....then what the heck is SPM supposed to do? Just get michael and kitt to a place a little more faster? Also, I don't like how KITT looks in SPM.