Google is scaling back its driverless car ambitions, moving efforts away from manufacturing the car, to focus on the software instead, the Information reports.
The move comes just three months after Apple was reported to have made a similar move.
Google is reportedly partnering with conventional manufacturers to launch an autonomous ride-sharing service by as soon as the end of 2017.
Fiat Chrysler has signed a deal to produce a prototype vehicle for Google modelled on a minivan, which could be used in commercial service.
Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and CFO Ruth Porat reportedly put the brakes on effort to manufacture a car.
They were reported to have concluded that the existing project to build a car without a steering wheel and pedals was too impractical.
in September, the New York Times reported that Apple had let go dozens of staff, as it refined the scope of its driverless car ambitions.
Rather than building the self-driving car itself, Apple is now reportedly focusing on the underlying technologies which power autonomous cars.
Such a move would mark a departure from its long-standing approach to product development – build the software and the hardware.