KITT 2000 (Knight Rider) vs Tesla Model X

This is essentially an expectation vs. reality post. In September 1992 a TV show premiered which starred KITT - the most technology advance car imagined at that time. Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT) was essentially a weaponized talking car equipped with the most modern technology at that time. You can view KITTs full features in this website but for this purpose we will only focus on feature relevant to everyday consumers, because we don't really need missiles and smoke screens for our everyday commute.

Maybe it would be good to start with basic features relevant to consumers today:
- 2 door 4 seater sports car
- 0 to 60 mph in 2 seconds
- 12 ft breaking distance, 60 - 0 mph
- full and autonomous self driving capability
- it has artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that can make the car carry actual conversations with the driver
- powered by hydrogen gas with almost unlimited range
- self tinting windows
- auto doors
- video display monitors
- surveillance capability
- printer (good as a mobile office)
- GPS

If compared to to the Tesla Model X:
- 4 door SUV
- 0 to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds
- semi-autonomous driving
- electric powered with a range of about 300 miles
- auto doors, gull wing rear doors
- digital display
- sentry mode
- GPS

Aside from the cars being different as on is a sport car and the other an SUV the specs seem to be very par with each other. Obviously one is imagined and the other has come 30 years in the future. While a fully autonomous car will be a long time coming even with all the breakthroughs in technology, a car that can actually drive like a human in all types of road conditions and no roads at all is still in the early developments. While fully autonomous vehicles such as the martian rover has been developed and autonomous vehicle that can guarantee human safety has a long way to go.

It does seem that technological advancements on the automotive industry moved more rapidly in the past two decades compared to the previous years due in part on the growth of faster internet, faster computing and the swift development on smaller technologies such as smartphones and cameras. I drive a 17 year old car and it seems like ancient technology. KITT is now 38 and the imagined features are almost all a reality.