Apple has been notoriously secretive about its self-driving car project, even as it pulls in experts in automotive autonomy from high-tech potential rivals. Rumor has it that Apple’s special projects group, or Project Titan, is working on an autonomous, electric vehicle, but in February CEO Tim Cook cautioned that this Christmas present won’t be unwrapped “for a while.”

Now, Bloomberg is reporting that about 1,000 people have left the staff of Project Titan, some out of their own choice and some being let go or moved to different projects as Apple scales back its car-making hardware capabilities. Instead, the report said, the project will focus more on software that could be rolled out along with cars from more conventional manufacturers. This was first rumored in July, when Dan Dodge, the former chief executive officer of BlackBerry operating system developer QNX, was brought in to Project Titan.

Along with the restructuring, the moonshot automotive project has also been given a new deadline: Project Titan has until late 2017 to show practical deployment of an autonomous car system and to establish a more solid goal for the product, according to Bloomberg’s anonymous sources.

As of now, the project appears to be led by Bob Mansfield, who previously served on the Apple executive board. However, Apple itself has neither confirmed nor denied the details of the venture.

In April, Analyst Angelo Zino told the Associated Press that “Apple absolutely needs to start diversifying their revenue base” in order to counteract slowing smartphone sales and Apple’s heavy reliance on the iPhone business. Creating an end-to-end ecosystem for a self-driving car could definitely do that, but Apple also doesn’t want to overreach into an expensive foray into a new class of product – especially one as large and risky as a self-driving car.