My husband and I have an ongoing dispute about putting air in car tires. I insist on having him do it, being more than a little afraid of having a tire explode at me (happened to me with a bike tire I was inflating in my teens). He does not think this particular mishap is possible with car tires, especially since we’d be using portable compressors, not gas-station air supply or tire-shop grade equipment.
How likely is it that someone using home DIY equipment would have this happen?
It would pretty much only happen if the tire had preexisting damage. A compressor isn’t going to blow it otherwise.
As you learned from the bicycle tire, the pressure goes up so fast using the gas station air that it’s much easier to blow and you have to inflate a bicycle tire with very short bursts.
A car tire inflates more slowly, so it’s easier to monitor the pressure and avoid over-inflating it.
Even gas station air has controls on it anymore that make over pressuring you tire nearly impossible. It’s been years since I’ve seen just a simple hose tied directly into the station compressor, like was common back in the day. Most places now charge for air and have regulators on the supply.
It’s very unlikely. To illustrate this, hook up a normal bicycle floor pump to your car tire and start pumping - see how long it takes to add just one PSI. It’s likely you’ll tire (heh, pun intended) and give up before you reach that mark.
Compressed air of course goes much faster, but the volume of air in a car tire is much more than a bike tire, and much lower PSI, so if you slowly add air and check the pressure often, the danger is very small (unless, as mentioned, there is some damage to the tire involved). Just make sure you know what the pressure target is.
As an aside, please also check and top off your spare, if you have one. This is often forgotten. It would suck to need that spare at some point only to find out it’s flat.
A tire can explode during inflation, but only if it is inflated to a pressure much higher than it is rated for. I’m talking well over 100 PSI.
Having said that, this topic reminds me of a freak accident in 2010 where a woman died due to a tire explosion. But I am not sure of the cause. Was the tire over-inflated? Or did it have proper pressure, and a defect made it explode? (If it is the latter, does that mean a faulty tire could explode at 35 PSI?) And I am not sure what to do if I see a tire with a bulge in it. My instinct is to let the air out ASAP. But what if it explodes the first second I try to deflate it?
In the literal case I dealt with a couple of weeks ago, I just carefully removed the wheel and replaced it with a skinny spare until I could replace the bulging tire.
I think I was only at risk as I was removing the wheel, but the tire itself was under less strain at that moment (since it was jacked off the ground and not bearing any weight) so I judged it to be a reasonable momentary risk.
I remember the days when the air at a gas station was a (free) gizmo with a dial you could change to get desired air pressure. One idiot I was biking with decided to crank it to max (IIR a little over 100psi) and proceeded to inflate his tire until it bulged to twice its normal size in one spot and blew.
So, almost 3 times normal pressure for a very thin piece of rubber and fabric (and the inner tube). A car tire is a lot stronger and thicker. So as the previous answers say, unless there is alrady a serious flaw in the tire, not going to blow at near normal pressure (i.e. 0-60psi). However, if you drive a distance on a flat or severly(!) underinflate tire, it will damage the sidewall and make it likely to blow.
Tire blowouts often happen when the tire is badly underinflated (but not empty). The driver does not notice the visible bulge, but it is flexing the sidewall - the faster and further you go, the more damage. The flexing also makes the tire very hot, which further weakens the rubber. Touch your tire after driving a while. It will be warm, but if it feels almost too hot to touch (and you can’t blae the sun) Check the pressure.
If you have not abused your tires, you have nothing to worry about.
I have trouble imagining any modern compressor for tires going over 100psi. (Mine only goes up to 100). Also, the volume of air needed to get to that will take a LONG time compared to a bicycle. You should be stopping every so often (20-30 sec?) to check pressure anyway since you want pressures to be fairly precise and equal among the tires.
ETA - I’ve had 3 cases where a tire sidewall bulged. It can cause noticeable vibration sometimes, but in each case I drove - I assume - for quite a distance before we noticed it.(Then replaced the tire. There is no repair). So don’t ignre a bulge, but you can probably drive home across town safely unless it is a huge bulge.
One thing to keep in mind is that there is a fundamental difference between bike tires and car tires. Bike tires have an inner tube inside the tire, while car tires are just the tire on the rim. This difference is one reason why a bike tire will explode. With a car tire, if the pressure gets too high, the tire will separate from the rim and the air will escape. With a bicycle tire, the inner tube will keep expanding until it pops like a balloon. It doesn’t matter if the bike tire releases from the rim. The inner tube holds all the air inside until the inner tube itself pops. And it would take a long time to over inflate a car tire to the point at which it releases the air. The home compressors take forever just go to up 1psi.
If you have battery powered tools at home, see if they have an inflator. I have this Ryobi and I love it. Very portable and handy. Little chance over over-inflating. I think the battery would die well before that happened.
I agree with what’s been posted - it’s pretty safe these days.
But, there are older wheels using “split rims” that are quite dangerous.
FWIW: I started a compressor on a tire and forgot about it. It was a cheap-ass one without a stopping PSI and got close to 100psi when the compressor failed. The tire was still good.
Many bicycle tires are tubeless, like car tires, with a hooked/beaded rim and sealant. There are also tubular tires which are basically donuts that are glued or taped to the rim. They’re all gaining popularity for various reasons, but they’ve been de rigueur in racing for decades. Then there’s the old standby, clinchers, which have inner tubes and a hooked/beaded rim, but no sealant. The inner tube is in direct contact with the rim and the inside of the tire when inflated, which prevents the tube from from expanding. Otherwise, the tube would blow up to the size of a party balloon at the sort of pressures bike tires use. So the only way it will pop catastrophically (versus hissing out of a small puncture) is if can squeeze out of an opening. In an overinflation situation, it would most likely expand to the point that it unseats the tire from the rim, at which point there’s nothing preventing the tube from expanding past its elastic limit and pow. It’s the higher pressure and smaller size that makes the bike tires pop so loudly, but if you inflated a car tire to a similar degree over its rating then it would go kapow as well, or maybe boom rather than pop.
Take it to Costco. Someone will come out of the garage and check/inflate your tires for you.
These are typically used for large semi trucks and off road heavy duty equipment. They are supposed to be put in a cage in order to work on them.
My cousin lost a finger back in the 80s while repairing one. It exploded in the cage while he had his fingers in it while working on it. Without the cage it most likley would have killed or maimed him.
So, you’d rather it blow up in his face?
My husband hates Ryobi, but a quick Google search confirms that DeWalt has multiple options. 
My car is a 2016 Dodge Dart, so I’m going to guess I probably don’t have that “feature”.
He’s adamant that it won’t happen, so insists there is zero risk.
I have a cheap, Chinese inflator (perhaps $20-25 from Amazon). It’s powered via the cigarette lighter and has a display where I can set the target pressure. Plus the hose screws onto the valve cap so I don’t have to hold it in place.
I think ANY tire place will do it. I know Discount Tire will.
This is Elaine and Puddy all over again.
(whooshing noise)