The emerging technology will use the capital city as a proving ground in a year-long pilot program. The service will ferry riders between the Providence Train Station and Olneyville Square.

PROVIDENCE — What does the autonomous, steering-wheel-free future of driving feel like?

"Smooth" was how Gov. Gina Raimondo described the ride Tuesday after an inaugural spin around the State House to kick off a year-long free public shuttle-bus route between the Providence Train Station and Olneyville Square.

The Democrat admitted that she "got a little nervous" when the vehicle attendant took his hands off the controls. "But after a couple minutes it felt great. It felt safe and smooth. ... It swerved around the curb that juts out. It stopped at a red light, took a left when it needed to."

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza has been for a ride in a self-driving vehicle before (at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas), so some of the novelty has worn off.

"I gotta admit; it's kind of boring," Elorza told reporters after getting out of the vehicle with Raimondo. "It's a car ride. It definitely felt safe. There was a construction site that we passed and it knew intuitively to move to the left and then back."

Starting Wednesday morning, a mini-fleet of autonomous shuttle buses will begin ferrying riders between the Providence Train Station and Olneyville Square as part of a year-long pilot program to test out how self-driving vehicles will fare on city streets.

The six-passenger, self-driving shuttle buses will make 12 stops along the 5.3-mile route, which swings from the Providence Train Station around the State House and past the Providence Place mall, where it turns west along the Woonasquatucket River to Valley Street and Olneyville Square. Stops along the way include Rising Sun Mills, Eagle Square, the ALCO complex and the Foundry.

The full circuit — running from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. seven days a week — is expected to take 20 to 25 minutes to complete with 10-minute wait times between trips.

While celebrating the launch of the service, state officials Tuesday also revealed its cost has crept up from $800,000 to $1.2 million.

It's being paid for with $500,000 in Volkswagen emissions scandal settlement money, $580,000 in federal research funds and $145,000 in state dollars, according to DOT spokesman Charles St. Martin.

May Mobility, the Michigan company that's bringing the shuttles to Providence, calls the "Little Roady" project the first attempt at autonomous public transportation of its kind in the country.

The company has also said it has assumed liability if anything goes wrong, but since testing of the vehicles began in February at the Quonset Business Park, there have been "no incidents of any kind during testing," said May COO and co-founder Alisyn Malek.

"These small, strange vehicles will serve two purposes. They are research vehicles, collecting reams of data to tell us how to improve our transportation system in the future and how to prepare for that," Transportation Director Peter Alviti Jr. said. "Little Roady will also provide a free shuttle service and the vehicles have undergone 500 hours of testing in all different weather conditions."

On Tuesday the Little Roady shuttles were not entirely self driving.

Because they were circling the State House and not making the turn toward Olneyville, human attendants took control to turn them left where Francis Street reaches the mall.

The attendants, who will remain on every trip when the project launches to the public, on Tuesday took control when the safety-conscious robot driver was frozen trying to make a left turn at a busy stop light with no break in the oncoming traffic.

"I took over, just so we could keep going," said May Mobility attendant Noah Lukins after zipping the shuttle through the yellow light at the intersection of Smith and Gaspee.

The shuttle buses are made in California, then May Mobility customizes them and adds software in Michigan.

KVH Industries in Middletown is providing fiber-optic gyroscopes that help the vehicle maintain proper speed, Malek said.