Blind Driving - Television Tropes & Idioms

A blind (or blindfolded) person is driving a vehicle (usually a car).

This can happen for a number of reasons. The blind person may be in a dire situation and there is noone else around who can drive them to safety. Or they could be showing off their skills. Or they may be doing it for the thrill. Or they may not even realise that they're blind.

In most cases, there's someone who can see the way who gives them directions, either via telephone/walkie-talkie or from inside the vehicle itself. In the latter case, hilarity often ensues from the passenger's panicked reactions.

A subtrope of Are You Sure You Can Drive This Thing?.

Examples :

Comic Books

In the comic book series Top 10 there's a blind taxi driver that steers by fate. He and his passengers always arrive where they need to be, but other people in the way...not so much.
During the early days of Justice Society of America, Dr. Mid-Nite was sometimes shown to drive the car. While Mid-Nite can technically see due to a special visor that plays off the fact that he can only see in total darkness, there's no way he'd ever get a proper license.

Film

In Sneakers, Whistler, who is blind, has to drive a truck for a small distance, following directions via walkie-talkie.
In Scent of a Woman, the blind protagonist does this at top speed, following directions from his terrified young friend in the passenger seat. And when he is pulled over, he talks his way out of a ticket with the cop never realizing his blindness.
In See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Wally, who is blind, does this, following Dave's directions.
In Percy Jackson: The Sea Of Monsters, the Gray Sisters do this. It would have been creepy enough even if they didn't Drive Like Crazy.
In the Australian movie Proof, Martin drives this way with his friend Andy giving him instructions.
Spy Hard has a scene spoofing Speed in which Ray Charles is driving the bus.
When the only other eligible adult breaks her glasses, the protagonist of Blind Fury gets behind the wheel to escape some bad guys, while taking instructions from a kid.
In Delirious, Jack blindfolds himself to play "a little game called 'Trust'." He drives at high speed while Laura frantically warns him about upcoming threats. They make out fine. Later, Laura blindfolds Dennis to do the same. It doesn't go so well.

Live-Action TV

Happens twice in The Mentalist, both times by the titular character. The first time he is temporarily blind and guided by Grace in the passenger seat, while the second time he is blindfolded and guided by the unconscious reactions of Walter Mashburn in the passenger seat. Surprisingly, he fares much better in the latter case.
Tested by Mythbusters and confirmed, as people have tried this in real life. Just make sure the person giving directions isn't drunk, because then the driver will drive as if he/she were also drunk.
Season 5, episode 6 of Top Gear featured Jeremy Clarkson coaching Billy Baxter, a blind veteran of the British Royal Horse Artillery, around the track in the Suzuki Liana to prove that Richard Whiteley (who held the record for the slowest lap at the time) really was a bad driver. The blind man went a full four seconds faster.
- The American version had this in the second episode. They held a challenge to see who could drift better: Adam, Rutledge, or a blind man coached by Tanner. The blind man and Tanner won.
In Drake & Josh after Helen gets laser eye surgery, she arrives at the theater and gives the keys to Josh.
Josh: You drove here when you couldn't see!
Helen: Yeah, not one of my better ideas.

Video Games

Woozie in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has a version - he's really good at racing around designed tracks (like the race where CJ first meets him), but regular driving tends eat up a lot of time (his right-hand man, after CJ asked where Woozie was, said that he insisted on driving himself. "Could be anywhere.")

Western Animation

SpongeBob SquarePants had to learn a driving course blindfolded as part of a Drill Sergeant Nasty's Training from Hell. Unfortunately, he can't drive without being blindfolded afterwards.
- In an earlier episode SpongeBob gets directions from Patrick over walkie-talkie in order to pass his driving test - not blindfolded, however.
Chowder once had a Magoo-esque character driving across the city, with police giving chase, and crashing into Mung Daal's kitchen, mistaking it for his home.
Naturally, this happens to Mr Magoo every time he goes driving.