Momenta has announced that it has received a test licence from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). This permit allows Level 4 autonomous test drives on urban roads across the entire country. According to Momenta, it is the first Chinese company to be granted such nationwide approval for urban traffic by the authority.
The practical value of this approval lies less in its symbolic significance and more in the reduction of bureaucracy. Until now, developers of autonomous driving functions had to undergo a separate process for each city. This is precisely where such projects in Europe typically falter: not due to software limitations, but because of the question of where testing is permitted. Momenta can now relocate, expand, or continue its testing in a second city at will, without having to restart the bureaucratic process each time. Additionally, the safety validation is directly aligned with European regulations, which is likely to significantly shorten the path to further EU markets.
Level 4 autonomous driving: what it means in practice
Level 4 means that the vehicle can operate fully autonomously within a predefined operational domain and can be brought to a safe state without human intervention in the event of a malfunction. This eliminates the need for a safety driver to take control in an emergency. As a result, the effort required to demonstrate compliance is entirely different from that of Level 2 driver assistance systems, which are now standard in almost all new cars.
