By Akash Sriram Feb 4 (Reuters) - Uber Technologies backed its capital-intensive, early-stage autonomous vehicle strategy on Wednesday even as its profit took a hit from its push for affordable rides and higher taxes, sending the ​shares of the ride-hailing company down 5%. The company said it was committing capital to vehicle partners to secure ‌early supply and speed up deployments as its plaform has a structural advantage, while working with banks and private equity firms to finance most of ‌the auton ...