39 Driving Fails That Make You Grip the Steering Wheel

Updated on January 15, 2026

Driving fails are everywhere, but this batch is special because it’s not just “oops, I drifted a little.” It’s “yes officer, the trampoline is part of the car now.” These are the kinds of moments that make you whisper “good luck to everyone” and then immediately check your mirrors like the road is haunted.

If you’ve ever seen a load wobble and felt your soul leave your body, you already know the genre. Bad drivers don’t just ignore common sense—they treat it like optional DLC.

We gathered 39 driving fails featuring questionable cargo, chaotic DIY solutions, and the sort of confidence that should require a permit.

Driving Fails With Main-Character Energy

Let’s start with the Tesla mattress situation: passengers holding a full mattress onto the roof with their bare hands like they’re doing CrossFit for liability. That’s not “transport,” that’s a group project in denial. One gust of wind and you’ve got highway chaos that’ll live forever in someone’s dashcam footage.

Then there’s the pickup truck stacked with what looks like an entire furniture store’s hopes and dreams—chairs, tables, the whole “we’re moving today” fantasy piled to the sky. It’s an overloaded car photo that screams, “I measured nothing, but I believe in myself.” That stack hits a speed bump and suddenly you’re playing Jenga at 60 mph.

The DIY extended vehicle made of mismatched parts and wood? That’s less a car and more a choice. It looks like a limo and a garden shed got into a fender bender and decided to stay together for the kids. I don’t know what it’s registered as, but I’m guessing “emotional support wagon.”

And the trampoline frame on the tiny car roof—wide load, narrow confidence. It’s the kind of unsafe load that turns a two-lane road into a live obstacle course for everybody else. Add the sedan hauling a skyscraper of pallets, suspension begging for mercy, and you’ve got classic driving fails that double as public art titled Gravity Always Wins.

The motorcycle carrying a full door vertically on their back is the one that really makes you question reality. Is that DoorDash? Is that a sail? Is that a cry for help? Yes.

If these driving fails made you clutch your chest, cleanse your eyeballs with 26 Kitchen Disasters That Started With “Watch This,” 32 DIY Projects That Should’ve Been Illegal, and 32 Workplace Moments That Deserved Hazard Pay.

Mike Hartley writes with big dad-energy and bigger side-eye, like your GPS just sighed and rerouted you around humanity.