Chinese autonomous-driving company Momenta (HKEX: 6880) received a testing permit from Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority, or KBA, on July 29, 2026, allowing it to run Level 4 autonomous-driving tests on urban roads nationwide. The company said it is the first Chinese firm to hold this kind of Germany-wide authorization, a step that moves its European robotaxi ambitions closer to commercial reality.

The Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt runs one of the more demanding approval regimes for autonomous driving anywhere in the world. Under the new permit, Momenta no longer needs to apply city by city, and its safety validation standards will align directly with the European Union's regulatory framework.

Momenta CEO Cao Xudong framed the approval as a validation of the company's technology rather than a bureaucratic formality. "Germany is one of the global benchmarks for autonomous-driving regulation, with a rigorous and comprehensive approach that always puts public safety first," Cao said. He described the company's world-model approach as designed to anticipate how road situations evolve, not just detect what is already there.

Momenta has built its German presence over nearly a decade. Mercedes-Benz (ETR: MBG) became its first international automaker investor in 2017, and the company now also counts BMW (ETR: BMW), Audi and Volkswagen Group (ETR: VOW3) among its partners. Its European headquarters sits in Böblingen, with a separate office in Munich, the city Momenta and Uber (NYSE: UBER) have designated as the first European launch point for their robotaxi partnership.

The permit does not itself put driverless cars on Munich streets. As Automotive World noted, the distance between a testing authorization and commercial deployment remains substantial, with no date yet set for closing it. Momenta's robotaxi partners beyond Uber include Grab (NASDAQ: GRAB), Lumo, and EnjoyGo Technology, the ride-hailing arm of SAIC Motor (SSE: 600104).

Uber deepened its financial stake in Momenta around the same announcement. Through its subsidiary SMB Holding Corporation, Uber was allotted 397,600 shares during Momenta's Hong Kong initial public offering earlier this month, on top of the 791,055 preferred shares it already held from Momenta's Series C round completed in September 2025. That brings Uber's total holding to about 1.19 million shares, worth roughly HK$351 million (c. $45 million) at the IPO price of HK$295.6 (c. $37.70) per share.

Momenta listed in Hong Kong on July 8, 2026, raising about HK$6.8 billion (c. $867 million), with roughly 20% of proceeds earmarked for its robotaxi business. Shares rose more than 10% on the day of the Germany announcement, and the company's market value has exceeded HK$70 billion (c. $8.9 billion) since its debut.

Momenta's robotaxi operations already run in Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi and Shenzhen in China, plus Munich and Abu Dhabi. The Germany approval lands the same week Baidu's Apollo Go began public-road testing in London alongside Uber and Lyft-owned FreeNow, and days after rival WeRide disclosed overseas testing of its driver-assistance software in Germany, France and Japan. Momenta separately confirmed this week that it has begun operating robovans in Suzhou for delivery services, part of a broader push to apply its world-model platform across robotaxis, robovans and robotrucks.

Zhang Xiang, a visiting professor at Huanghe Science and Technology University, told Global Times that the Germany approval shows Chinese autonomous-driving companies are starting to meet some of the world's strictest regulatory requirements, and that further overseas expansion will hinge as much on local partnerships and regulatory approval as on the underlying technology.

Whether Munich's streets see driverless Momenta vehicles before Berlin, Hamburg or another German city remains an open question the company has yet to answer.

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