WASHINGTON – Getting from point A to B would be less complicated “if every bike, car and bus was connected to an intelligent system that could automatically decide which mode of transit was the quickest for pedestrians” to take, reports the Washington Post.

Of course there is the cost of upgrading every piece of transit equipment, which is “too ambitious for a city government.”  But not for Shift.

Armed with $13 million in funding, Shift is creating a “21st century transit system from the ground up.” The start-up purchased 100 Teslas for its fleet and recently provided the Washington Post with a demo of how it will work.

“Shift’s guiding philosophy is that most city dwellers don’t care much about the vehicle that gets them from point A to point B, as long as they can get to their destination cheaply and quickly,” writes the Post.

Unlike Uber, which makes it easier to access transportation, Shift is “designed to take the thinking out of transit” with a fleet of private bicycles, tiny smart cars, Teslas, shuttles and on-call valets” that are scattered throughout a city’s downtown “urban core.” Shift says that users can be on their way with the most efficient mode of transportation available to them within 5 minutes of accessing the app.

The way it works is that Shift uses an algorithm that searches through its inventory of transit. “It’s basically a math calculation. Where you are + where you want to go + how you want to go (drive/ride/bike) = the mode we match you to,” explained Shift CEO Zach Ware to the Post. “That decision is based on factors including the distance we predict your trip to be, your past patterns of movement or our predictions on what the system balance needs might be during your trip.”

Ware says that Shift’s biggest competitor is not Uber, it’s “your car,” noting that the company has two missions: “eliminate the need to own a car and make it easier for commuters to live outside of downtown metros.”