BMW’s partnership with Momenta is about to point out up in a manufacturing automotive. Each firms confirmed right this moment that their collectively developed intelligent-driving system will debut within the next-generation BMW iX3 in-built China, with mass manufacturing beginning in 2026.
This would be the first BMW mannequin to run Momenta’s end-to-end “flywheel” stack—a big neural-network mannequin that handles notion, planning, and management in a single circulation. As an alternative of separate modules passing data forwards and backwards, the system reads the setting, makes choices, and executes them by way of a unified structure. It’s the type of setup that makes extra sense in China, the place site visitors habits can shift rapidly and guidelines don’t all the time predict how folks truly drive.
A China-Particular Structure Constructed on Momenta’s “Flywheel” Mannequin
The China-built iX3 will take a distinct path from the worldwide model. In Europe, the Neue Klasse iX3 will launch with BMW’s newest Stage 2+ driver-assistance capabilities: hands-on however extremely automated, particularly on highways. Business insiders count on the China model to go a step additional. With Momenta’s stack beneath, it’s being described by sources as “Stage 2++.”
BMW and Momenta have joint engineering groups working throughout Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Nanjing, tuning the system to match native circumstances. Beijing’s dense ring roads, Shanghai’s multi-layer expressways, Shenyang’s winters, and Nanjing’s tight city neighborhoods all feed instantly into calibration work.
The actual testing footprint is much bigger. BMW says the system is being validated in opposition to greater than 100 million kilometers of simulation, layered on high of large-scale highway testing performed underneath BMW’s international security requirements. Excessive-frequency situations, unpredictable maneuvers, and uncommon edge instances are all being constructed into the loop.
How the China Model Goes Past Europe’s Stage 2+ System
Momenta’s involvement is central to how this method works. The corporate is one in all China’s few true full-stack autonomous-driving gamers, working underneath a “one flywheel, two legs” technique: mass-produced L2/L2+ techniques on one facet, and data-driven L4 analysis on the opposite. The BMW program feeds instantly into that mannequin. BMW’s contribution focuses on security oversight, driver interplay logic, and tuning that retains the automotive’s habits predictable and constant. The objective isn’t to automate the whole lot—it’s to construct a system that feels pure and reliable to somebody driving in China day by day.
Manufacturing of the China-specific Neue Klasse iX3 begins at BMW Brilliance’s Shenyang facility in 2026, with the market launch and international debut taking place later that yr. Deliveries in China are anticipated to begin in the summertime of 2026. BMW has already stated the China variant can have options tailor-made particularly for the market, together with BMW’s customized LLM developed with Alibaba and the extra superior driving-assistance system co-developed with Momenta.
As soon as it launches, this Momenta-powered stack gained’t be restricted to at least one mannequin. BMW plans to develop it to extra China-built automobiles. The corporate now joins Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan in partnering with Momenta—one other signal that international automakers are adapting rapidly to China’s tempo in clever driving, and now not counting on merely porting over international techniques after the actual fact.
