> I also remember run-down suburbs where massive potholes and ditches make navigations of certain streets a puzzle by itself, compounded by garbage trucks ahead just doing their thing, improperly placed signage ahead, and those badly-designed intersections where you can totally count on drivers misjudging distances.

Even assuming your anecdote is at all relevant, why would any of these factors impact the ability of an autonomous vehicle to navigate these streets? The car knows where it has to go, and it senses its environment more frequently, with more precision, and with faster reaction times than a human ever could. Either the objects surrounding it are on vectors that will impact its chosen path or they won't. If they don't, then it proceeds. If they do, it must slow, stop, or find an alternate path that avoids those vectors. There's nothing earth shattering here.