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Object avoidance is the primary feature of any autonomous vehicle. So the one thing it does very well, better then any human, is prevent you from hitting things. (i.e. people, animals, falling trees, etc...) It's reaction time is a few milliseconds, whereas the average human reaction time to a sudden even that requires braking, if they're even paying attention, is about 1.5 seconds.
You're right tough that certain things screw them up. They don't do well in heavy rain/snow that obscures the lines in the road. (then again neither do people) They also don't do great when there is road construction, accidents or a human directing traffic. That's why current state laws require a human to be behind the wheel and capable of taking control to get a permit to drive an autonomous car. Without some sort of infrastructure change the visual impairment of the lines in the road is a tricky one to solve. However simply changing the paint to have some sort of magnetic or em reflective properties would fix that. Unique situations like road construction or an accident on the road ahead of you is something that will be worked out eventually with ever improving AI. Anything the car can "see" it will eventually be able to deal with.
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