This kind of "world models" that can understand physics enough to be able to predict short term future (like humans can) are crucial for any kind of real-world AI (i.e. robotics, including self-driving), because they constitute what could be termed as "physical common sense" (that humans have, but also animals, to some degree).
Is it enough for self-driving? No, you also need to understand road rules, communicate with humans (pedestrians and fellow drivers), etc. but it's a good, possibly necessary, step - it allows you to better handle many unpredictable (tail of distribution) situations:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDrivingCars/comments/1g75ftb/wa...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c&pp=ygUJb2sgZ28gY2F...