Illustration: AI-generated · Inside China AI
Momenta: The First Chinese AV Company Licensed Germany-Wide
In July, Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) issued a permit that made quiet history: Momenta became the first Chinese company ever granted nationwide approval for Level-4 test drives in urban traffic — every German city, one permit. Combined with the Uber partnership that begins robotaxi testing in Munich in 2026, and a European headquarters that has operated in Böblingen, Baden-Württemberg for years, Momenta is arguably the most established Chinese autonomous-driving player in the German market — less an arrival story than a company Europe is only now noticing.
The two-legged strategy
Founded in 2016 by Cao Xudong, a machine-learning researcher out of Tsinghua and Microsoft Research Asia, Momenta runs a strategy it calls “two legs”: sell mass-production advanced driver assistance to carmakers today, and use the fleet data those cars generate to train the full Level-4 autonomy of tomorrow. The first leg pays for the second — and creates a data flywheel that pure robotaxi companies must fund with venture capital instead. It is the same logic Tesla pursues, executed as a supplier rather than a carmaker.
Deep roots in the industry
Momenta’s supplier leg has made it a familiar name across the global car industry: its investor base has included European, Japanese, and American carmakers — Mercedes-Benz joined as early as 2017 — and its assistance systems run in China-market models of several international brands, including both German premium makers. The Böblingen headquarters anchors European engineering and, since July, the KBA-approved national test program. Few Chinese technology companies have been part of the automotive supply conversation this long or this quietly.
Munich, Uber, and the robotaxi leg
In September 2025, Uber and Momenta announced joint robotaxi testing in Munich from 2026, with the declared aim of expanding into a European service — and Uber has since deepened its stake — most recently investing through a subsidiary in Momenta’s Hong Kong IPO this August, which made the company one of the newest publicly listed players in the AV field. The KBA permit is the enabling step: test vehicles may now operate in urban traffic across Germany, though not yet with paying passengers — that final regulatory door remains closed, and when it opens will define the German robotaxi timeline for everyone, including Baidu’s Freenow route and Pony.ai’s Uber alliance.
Why it matters for Europe
Momenta adds an important nuance to the “Chinese AV in Europe” debate: not every entrant is an outsider knocking at the door. Here is a company with long-standing international carmaker relationships, a German engineering base, and now a federal license — the most institutionally integrated path of the three robotaxi routes we have profiled. That model has real advantages for Europe: local jobs, regulatory oversight from the start, and technology partnerships rather than pure imports. It also carries the structural question that runs through all our Physical-AI coverage: the software layer that defines the vehicle increasingly comes from ecosystems outside Europe — and the long-term terms of that exchange are set now, permit by permit, partnership by partnership. Momenta is where those terms are being negotiated first.
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