I was sent a link today to what somebody thinks is a really cool addon for their car.
I already have a GPS unit but I’ll be dammed if I’m not throwing it out because the guys at Mio have come up with a Knight Rider branded GPS unit with voice prompts by the one and only Mr Feeny KITT William Daniels. Apparently, you will recognize his familiar voice as soon as you fire it up and hear “Hello Michael, where do you want to go today?” As an added touch, the display is flanked by a series of red LEDs that mimic KITTs hood-mounted lights. Further details are scarce, but we do know the Mio Knight Rider GPS will retail for $299 when it is finally released.
gizmodo.com
I’m sorry, when I think of Knight Rider in this day and age, I think David Hasselhoff drunk in his shower eating a hamburger. KITT should have been sent to the scrap heap with the rest of the Camaros from that year, since they decided to have him installed in a Ford the second time around. William Daniels isn’t the voice of KITT, anyway. William Daniels is the voice of John Adams.
…When (and if) I get a GPS navigator for my car, it’ll have a proper voice interface.
For those nit-pickers out there (you know who you are) that immediately corrected the trivia error by pointing out that KITT was based on a Trans Am and not a Camaro, Let me offer the following.
One might well ask, what is the difference between these cars? Other than the color, and the really cool light in the front of the KITT car the answer is virtually nothing. GM, which made the vehicles in question, produced identical bodies for the Camaro and the Firebird. Chevrolet and Pontiac designed slightly different tails and noses for the two flavors of the sports car (and different interiors, of course) but the rest of the cars are relatively indistinguishable. As someone who knows cars from inside the business, the minor differences between the Pontiac and Chevrolet didn’t warrant notice, even when watching the show.
Forgive me if I glossed over the trivia. I have always preferred Chevrolets over Pontiacs, the only prejudice I inherited from my father.
Postscript
Chevrolet won because they still exist. Pontiac and Oldsmobile lost and have been relegated to the history books unless General Motors decides to resurrect the brands. A computer voice will always sound like Majel Barrett in my head, no matter what horrors Paramount enacts on the corpse of my beloved Star Trek.
The Night Rider is a character mentioned in Mad Max. That is where my brain goes when I hear the name Knight Rider. The TV show was quickly forgotten. The doors on KITT are cooler than either the Firebird or the Camaro.
Those aren’t the doors from the show, though.
Nor were they standard on the Camaro or the Firebird Trans Am. So. Can’t get the car no matter what you call it unless you bought the one Hasselhoff sold or you bought a prop from the show, maybe later in the show where they added those doors. Glad you have that kind of money.
Watching that opening sequence, I begin to understand why everyone thinks autodrive is going to be a thing they want to have. They all want KITT in their cars. I hate to break it to you, but it ain’t going to be like that.
