It was able to capture neat videos, but I think a gopro stuck to the helmet would do a better job.
Google's self driving is far less dynamic as they would have you believe. Areas are extremely heavily analysed with a massive array of sensors, analysis and even human input/sanity checking before cars are allowed to drive in a specific area.
No doubt this preparation is expensive and the resources to do it are finite. I could easily see some very accessible normal place be unavailable to a self driving car.
Source: 2 of my coworkers worked at the start-up that originally developed the core self-driving platform that was acquired by Google(No, Google did not develop the origin technology). The both worked for some time at Google working on the project.