His predecessor was KARR, the Knight Automated Roving Robot. KITT was in fact the second vehicle built by Knight Industries with artificial intelligence. However, Wilton saw better use for "him" in the Foundation's crime-fighting crusade and eventually the system was installed in the vehicle.
The 2008 pilot movie later implied that Charles Graiman, creator of the Knight Industries Three Thousand, also had a hand in designing the first KITT.Īccording to the series, the original KITT's main cybernetic processor was first installed in a mainframe computer used by the US government in Washington, D.C. In the television show's history, the first KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) was designed by the late Wilton Knight, a brilliant but eccentric billionaire and founder of the Foundation for Law And Government (FLAG) and its parent Knight Industries. KITT was voiced by William Daniels in the original series, and by Val Kilmer in the 2008 series. In both instances, KITT is an artificially intelligent electronic computer module in the body of a highly advanced, very mobile, robotic automobile: the original KITT as a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, and the second KITT as a 2008/2009 Ford Shelby GT500KR. While having the same acronym, the KITTs are two different entities: one known as the Knight Industries Two Thousand, which appeared in the original TV series Knight Rider, and the other as the Knight Industries Three Thousand, which appeared first in the two-hour 2008 pilot film for a new Knight Rider TV series and then the new series itself.
KITT is the short name of two fictional characters from the adventure TV series Knight Rider.