5:15 PM at a busy urban junction in a rapidly growing African city. Rush hour has begun. ALevel-4 autonomous vehicle (AV), designed to operate with minimal human intervention underdefined conditions, approaches a congested intersection. The traffic lights are not functioning.Vehicles drift into improvised lanes as drivers negotiate limited road space. A trotro slows abruptlyto load passengers close to the junction. Pedestrians cross between moving vehicles rather thanwaiting at designated points. An okada slips through a narrow gap beside the vehicle. For a humandriver familiar with this traffic, these scenes are ordinary. They reflect an informal but deeplyunderstood system of movement shaped by experience, negotiation, and adaptation. But how woulda self-driving vehicle respond in such an environment? Can AV systems designed for structuredtransport settings function safely within the informal traffic environments common across manyAfrican cities?