Deutsche Bank: Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER.US) continues to improve the economic benefits of self-driving technology, reiterates "buy" rating and $108 target price.

Last week, the Deutsche Bank research team held a two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi and Dubai with Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER.US), meeting with many fleet management partners, autonomous vehicle suppliers, and senior autonomous vehicle leadership of Uber Technologies, Inc. Deutsche Bank released a research report stating that overall, they have a more positive view of Uber Technologies, Inc.'s relative position in the evolving autonomous vehicle ecosystem. The bank gave Uber Technologies, Inc. a "buy" rating with a target price of $108. Of particular note, Deutsche Bank believes that the company is building an "Uber Operating System" for autonomous vehicle integration. This system is based on a physical layer, data layer, software layer, and demand aggregation layer, supplemented by strong local and regulatory relationships as well as county-level market insights, eventually becoming a plug-and-play operating system for many autonomous vehicle partners. In addition, Deutsche Bank is increasingly aware that more and more autonomous vehicle software manufacturers are entering the market with viable technology. The bank also delved deeper into Uber Technologies, Inc.'s inherent cost advantages, which are reflected not only in collecting reliable real-world data for training AI models for autonomous vehicles, but also in expanding the scope and scale of their applications after deploying autonomous vehicles. These initiatives have shown initial success, as Uber Technologies, Inc. has achieved economic benefits in every new autonomous vehicle partnership agreement. While the proportion of autonomous vehicles in overall travel volume may still be small in the next two to three years, Deutsche Bank believes that Uber Technologies, Inc. is addressing core pain points and building scalable solutions that will be warmly received by existing and emerging autonomous vehicle suppliers. This trend is beginning to emerge in international markets, and the bank believes that over time (given the significant influx of funds into the industry), investors in the United States will also see similar results, which will help mitigate the autonomous vehicle-related risks that currently exist in Uber Technologies, Inc.'s stock price.