Had years ago where we came upon road construction that they didn’t even know what they were doing. Nobody was directing traffic as they were prepping the road for resurfacing, both lanes the the median. No cones or markers were anywhere. It was “you figure it out.” We got through with no direction from those working there.
This week I was expected to pull a road out of my rear end. They had fire trucks blocking both lanes and cones in the median for an accident. Lanes on the other side were moving normally. They were routing us through a residential neighborhood although nobody was directing traffic. The last ambulance left as I got to the choke point. Lucky for me I knew the neighborhood as friends I used to party with in high school used to live there.
My guess in both cases is that a self driving car would have just stopped and not moved until things got back to normal.
You make valid points and if there is no manual override (i.e. No steering wheel or pedals like Google wants) then what would you?