MZNOW with Michael Zavala

Meet the Man Bringing KITT to Life With Real AI (April 10, 2026)

·17 min·1 clip
Levi built a Knight Rider replica with an AI system that can find addresses and display restaurants just like in the show.
The episode features an interview with Levi, a guest who built a Knight Rider replica car and developed an AI system for it. He starts by describing the AI's capabilities, such as accessing the internet to find addresses and displaying information on a monitor. Levi reveals he has been a Knight Rider fan since childhood, inspired by reruns on the SyFy channel, and always dreamed of building a replica. His background includes being a college professor with a side hustle in software development, learning languages like C++ and Python. He found the car, a Trans Am, in Wisconsin; it had been stored in a garage for 25 years, avoiding rust, and he began a 10-year transformation process. The AI system, named Alpha Tech, is not affiliated with Knight Rider and allows customization of voices and characters, such as Transformers or Jarvis from Iron Man. It runs on a mini PC using API calls over the internet to reduce power consumption and cost. Features include voice conversation, cameras for facial recognition and object detection, GPS integration, and phone calls to other characters. Levi is working on surveillance mode, where the car can autonomously start conversations with people in parking lots. The product launched recently for $1,500, including software and instructions, with hardware costing around $600. It is sold through Knight Industries of Kentucky, and Levi promotes updates on his Facebook page. The host, Michael Zavala, shares his own interest in Knight Rider replicas and asks about installation and dashboard issues.

As heard by us

A Knight Rider fantasy becomes a working AI car build with a product path.

Levi brings a Knight Rider replica into the practical present, turning KITT into a car-bound assistant that can look up addresses, phone numbers, names, websites, and other information, then show the results on the monitor.

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Why you'd press play

You get to watch a Knight Rider replica turn rerun devotion into a mini-PC AI system built for the car-show battery reality.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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