Apple seems to be rethinking what it plans to do about self-driving cars, as the company has shuttered parts of the car project and has laid off employees. The company has had hundreds of engineers working on car design and has been targeting a release as soon as 2020. That goal has been affected by multiple departures, technical delays and confusion regarding the direction of the project.

According to the New York Times, the job cuts are the latest sign of trouble with Apple’s car initiative. The company has added resources to the project - code-named Titan - over the last two years, but it has struggled to make progress. And in July, the company brought in Bob Mansfield, a highly regarded Apple veteran, to take over the effort.

Apple has never acknowledged publicly that it is working on a car. It has hired a veterans from the automobile industry as well as experts in battery technology and autonomous driving.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has predicted that "there will be a massive change in the industry" as software and autonomous driving become more important.

Apple has also hired the former head of BlackBerry's automotive software division as new leadership at the iPhone-maker’s car team, placing emphasis on developing self-driving technology, according to Bloomberg.

The company was also said to had focuded on fast battery charging technology for car batteries, by inverstigating a charging infrastructure. Not many months ago, the company had been reportedly in touch with charging station companies and had also hired engineers with expertise in the area.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has tested self-driving cars on the road for years, but its focus has been on designing the underlying software and systems to make that technology work. Tesla has a self-driving feature within its cars that has come under scrutiny in recent months after a fatal accident was connected to its use.

Separately, Uber plans to start picking up passengers in self-driving cars. Last month, Uber also acquired the start-up Otto for about $700 million, a purchase that brought with it some of the top minds in robotics and autonomous technology.

And automakers like Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler have all said they expect to put a number of self-driving vehicles on the road in five years or less.