Yes, in the sense of “follow their programming”, robot cars do decide their actions. They cannot suddenly decide to make an action different from what their code, coupled with external inputs, forces them to. There is no top-down causation. People are exactly the same, except that those inputs an programming change the programming on the fly. But that can be also true of robot cars.
A robot car’s code does not force it to do anything. What the code does is what the robot does. As for top-down causation, if things that are made of parts exist, top-down causation exists. It is not separate from bottom-up causation; it is the same thing.
Yes, in the sense of “follow their programming”, robot cars do decide their actions. They cannot suddenly decide to make an action different from what their code, coupled with external inputs, forces them to. There is no top-down causation. People are exactly the same, except that those inputs an programming change the programming on the fly. But that can be also true of robot cars.
A robot car’s code does not force it to do anything. What the code does is what the robot does. As for top-down causation, if things that are made of parts exist, top-down causation exists. It is not separate from bottom-up causation; it is the same thing.