BMW has formally partnered with Momenta to co-develop China-exclusive intelligent driving solutions based on Flywheel Large Models. This collaboration will deploy across multiple models, including the domestically produced Neue Klasse series, delivering full-scenario, point-to-point navigation assistance covering both highways and urban roads for Chinese consumers. The announcement resolves longstanding speculation about BMW's autonomous driving strategy—leveraging Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform for hardware while Momenta provides the software backbone.
With this partnership, Momenta now powers the next-generation electric vehicles for all three German luxury automakers: BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi. Why did BMW select Momenta among numerous autonomous driving contenders? The decision traces back to BMW's supply chain preferences. BMW emerged as an early adopter of Qualcomm's autonomous driving chips, solidifying their collaboration in late 2021. By September 2023, the alliance expanded beyond driver-assistance systems to incorporate Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions across BMW's new models.
BMW's next-generation electronic architecture features four "super brains," boasting a 20-fold computing power increase over predecessors. Momenta stands among China’s earliest developers on Qualcomm’s platform—a partnership formalized in April 2024—and currently leads as the most globally oriented supplier in this niche. While competitors predominantly utilized Nvidia’s Drive Orin platform for urban navigation, Momenta pioneered collaboration with Qualcomm. Its portfolio spans the entire Snapdragon series—8620, 8650, 8775, and the next-gen 8797—enabling combined capabilities like Highway Navigation Pilot (HNP) and Urban Navigation Pilot (UNP) through its unified Flywheel algorithm framework.
At this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, Momenta CEO Cao Xudong revealed plans to launch a reinforcement-learning-based end-to-end Flywheel model in late 2024. This system simulates novel driving behaviors, learning from successes and failures to accelerate development. By June 2024, Momenta’s Snapdragon 8620-powered solution achieved 156 TOPS of effective system-level computing power in mass-production tests.
Beyond Qualcomm and Nvidia platforms, Momenta collaborates with more global automakers than any Chinese autonomous driving provider. Partners include FAW-Toyota, GAC-Toyota, Honda, Dongfeng-Nissan, SAIC-GM Cadillac, SAIC-GM Buick, SAIC Audi, BMW, and SAIC Volkswagen. This cross-platform expertise has unlocked doors across major global automotive markets.
Momenta now supports 130 vehicle models worldwide. Yet scaling brings challenges: adapting solutions across diverse vehicle segments demands flexibility. Budget models prioritize cost-effective hardware, while premium segments deploy higher-compute chips and LiDAR redundancy. Momenta’s hardware-agnostic Flywheel solutions dynamically configure sensors and chips per model requirements.
Its data architecture merges "long-term memory" with "short-term memory," mimicking human "intuitive reasoning + logical analysis" to slash training costs while resolving millions of edge cases. Momenta also developed automated tools and parametric software configurations for rapid model adaptation. Efficiency gains are staggering—vehicle deployment timelines collapsed from 400 personnel over two years (2022) to just 10 engineers within 3-6 months (2024), boosting productivity by orders of magnitude.
Battle-tested in mass production, Momenta has refined integrated service capabilities spanning R&D, product development, and delivery engineering. Evolving from "nationwide coverage" to "nationwide reliability," it has become the consensus choice for automakers worldwide. Partnerships with global brands remain pivotal for Momenta’s international expansion. Should it continue delivering automaker-satisfying solutions in this cutthroat market, the next chapter may well script a "globally functional" narrative.