Knight Rider GPS

Given that there are GPS Tracking units out there that can be programmed with different voices, the Mio Knight Rider GPS seems like it might just be a novelty with a logo attached to it. But that’s not really true, since along with kitschy TV voice,  there's a pretty good entry-level GPS unit here.

“Hello Michael, where would you like to go today?”

Before I even punched in any information on Mio’s Knight Rider GPS, I let out a chuckle because the voice was unmistakable. It really was William Daniels, the voice of K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand) from the original Knight Rider, a cult hit TV show from the 1980s starring David Hasselhoff.

Long Live K.I.T.T.
The Knight Rider GPS unit is the product of a partnership between Mio and Universal Studios. It has a compact design and a piano black finish with the Knight Rider logo at the top. Two red lamps flank the screen, lighting up whenever K.I.T.T. speaks. If the feature isn’t your cup of tea, then you have the option of turning it off as well. (But, really, why would you buy this GPS unit if you didn't have some kind of affection for Knight Rider?)

The 4.3-inch touchscreen is vibrant, without too much cluttered detail. You can choose between a 2D or 3D map on the fly by just tapping the arrow icon on the lower right-hand corner of the screen. The menus are clean and have a nice overall look to them, so it’s unlikely that you’d get confused with anything here.

Planning a trip is pretty standard, though Mio does need to do a better job of streamlining the process. Finding an address in, say, New York or Las Vegas can sometimes be more difficult than expected when the unit insists on giving you a list of all the streets with the same name — even when you've already narrowed it down. I found it funny that Daniels’s voice would speak out every letter that I inputted, but of course, he wasn’t able to speak out the street name.

The reason why is because Daniels would've needed to be in the studio for a long time to record his voice saying every street name in Canada and the United States. You can install text-to-speech (from a generic “Samantha” voice) to coincide with Daniels’ voice, but you’d have to do that from the software CD that comes with the unit. Moreover, you’d also have to delete either the French or Spanish voices to make room for the text-to-speech file.

As I said before, planning a trip is fairly straightforward. As you drive, the map will show icons for eateries, gas stations and other points-of-interest. Tap on them and you can add them to your overall route. You can also save any routes or addresses to the unit or to an SD card (there’s a slot on top for SD cards).

More K.I.T.T. required
I should also note that the Knight Rider GPS is useless as a pedestrian or bicycle GPS. Fitting perhaps when the product is themed after a show about a guy and his talking car.

And that’s part of the problem with the novelty of this device. Daniels simply doesn’t say enough. I was waiting for a quip or some kind of commentary that would make me laugh, but there wasn’t any. The unit’s operation felt very much like it was all business. I mean, if I go the wrong way, I’d love to hear something like “Michael, you clearly have lost your way, but I’ll be sure to bail you out again,” or something to that effect. Sure, it might get annoying to have that happen all the time, but perhaps Mio could’ve offered it as an extra you could turn on or off.

I was also a little peeved that the name “Ted” wasn’t part of the list of 300 names programmed in the device. If you’d rather not go the purist route and use “Michael” you can try and find your own name on there and you’ll be addressed with that. Mio says it plans to add more, but no word on when that might be.

And lastly, the device could’ve done a better job recalculating routes. At one point, it had me driving around in a circle when it wasn’t necessary. Another time, it told me to turn the wrong way onto a one-way street. Not the kinds of things that should happen with any GPS unit.

More Ideal for Entry-Level Users
At under $300, the Knight Rider GPS does have good value for what you get. It’s compact enough to move from car to car, and the red lamps really are a nice design choice on Mio's part. I had more than a couple of passengers love how they looked. They just wished Daniels said more so they could see the lights more often.

In the end though, it really is more of an entry-level unit. If you’ve owned a GPS unit before, this might not be for you — the whole Knight Rider theme notwithstanding. But if you are looking for something a little quirky that’s easy to use, then you can’t go wrong taking a drive with K.I.T.T.