What is the purpose of doing self.something = something

I am learning python right now and I am learning about classes. I am confused about the purpose of self and more specifically why I have to write self.make = make, etc.

Here is my example:

class Car():

    def _init_(self, make, model, year):
        self.make = make
        self.model = model
        self.year = year

    def get_name(self):
        long_name = str(self.year) + ' ' + self.make + ' ' + self.model
        return long_name.title()

To me, this looks like you are just setting a variable to itself which doesn't make sense to me. What is the purpose of this statement?