Heads turn and smartphone cameras rise as the boxy, futuristic cars slip through the streets of this 384-year-old port city.
Equipped with laser sensors, video cameras and sophisticated software, the cars drive themselves — mostly — picking up passengers along a route from downtown, through an area of old textile mills resurrected as loft apartments and into a lower-income neighborhood.
The six electric vehicles known collectively as Little Roady navigate a 5-mile loop in regular traffic and steer themselves into 10 curbside stops, giving lawyers and laborers alike a free ride.