One document rewrote the entire European map of Momenta. Only yesterday the Chinese self-driving developer was tied to Munich alone — now Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority, the KBA, has cleared it to test Level 4 systems on city roads across the whole country. Celebrating would be premature, though: this is permission to verify the technology, not a pass into the paid robotaxi business.
According to Momenta’s press service, the company is the first Chinese developer to receive Germany-wide approval of this level. The announcement appeared in Momenta’s official feed on 29 July 2026, under a headline about a Germany-Wide L4 Testing Approval from the KBA. The whole value of the document sits in the wording “across the whole country”: the basic approval procedure no longer has to be repeated for every city, which means testing the system in different road conditions can move noticeably faster.
“Germany is one of the world’s benchmarks in autonomous driving regulation: it applies a strict and comprehensive approach in which public safety always comes first,” said Momenta CEO Xudong Cao.
And yet only last autumn the company’s European plan sounded far more modest. In September 2025 Momenta and Uber named Munich the first venue for Level 4 trials — with a move into other cities sometime later. That “later” has arrived: technical testing can now be rolled out across Germany without begging basic permission from every new municipality.
But between a nationwide test and a ride a passenger books in the Uber app there is a gaping regulatory hole. In April 2026 Momenta Europe stated plainly in the Bundestag lobby register what it is really after: an amendment to § 1i of the StVG, the German road traffic act, that would allow paid passenger transport — partial or full — already during the Level 4 testing phase. The current reading of the rules, the company writes there, is a substantial barrier to innovation and commercial scaling. So the new KBA clearance confirms the right to test the technology — and nothing beyond it.
Uber’s financial bet on the project has grown in the meantime. Its SMB Holding Corporation picked up 397,600 shares in Momenta’s offering and added them to the 791,055 it held before the IPO. The combined stake reached 1,188,655 shares, worth roughly 351 million Hong Kong dollars at the offer price — about 45 million US dollars. The market answered the same day: Momenta stock in Hong Kong gained more than 9% in trading.
Momenta’s prospectus earmarks 20% of the net proceeds for commercialising and scaling robotaxis, robovans and autonomous trucks. The money is there. The Germany-wide clearance is there. Only one thing is missing — permission to put a paying Uber passenger into a Momenta car in Munich. That, and not another testing document, will be the next checkpoint.
