The best play to take stock of self-driving cars

While many in the auto industry don't see self-driving cars hitting the road until 2030, one analyst says you can make money on the growing trend now by buying Mobileye (MBLY) stock.

On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley lead auto analyst Ravi Shanker upped his price target to $68 from $65 and maintained his overweight rating on the stock saying now is the time to own it. He expects automakers to make advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) a standard in major markets in the near-future and says that could be a major catalyst for Mobileye.

"Toyota (7203.T-JP)has already said that pretty much every car that they sell in the U.S. is going to have ADAS by 2017, 70 percent of cars they sell in Europe by 2015. Volkswagen said something similar a few years out," Shanker says.

"Nissan (7201.T-JP)is already making an automatic braking standard in Japan by the fall of this year. If you assume roughly 100 million cars sold by the end of this decade, we say 40 percent will have ADAS options by 2020 and that goes up to 70 percent by 2029" he added.

Shanker wasn't the only analyst making a bullish call on Mobileye this week. Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache raised his price target to $55 from $53 and maintained a buy rating, citing growth of active safety technologies that is likely to exceed prior assumptions. The stock is up 9 percent since both calls.