there could be location data in the telemetry but the telemetry, itself, is not the location of the vehicle.
how does 'they know the location' translate into 'telemetry must have location for a self driving car'?
the self-driving and control of the car most likely happens on board. No need to send the location.
no need to send any data as long as one has a valid map and sensors for the world around the vehicle.
do you think that they car drives itself from telemetry from some data base on in 'the cloud'?
that wouldn't work well in fog and rain, anon.
if they lose telemetry lock the car wouldn't work correctly.
if there were thousands of those cars it would overload the communications links.
so self driving and telemetry probably aren't hard-coupled.
all of this is just guessing about what makes sense, I have no access to the design of the system.
wrong
telemetry was in my skill set long before cars had it.