BMW's China-made Neue Klasse iX3, slated for launch in early 2026, will be the first model to carry the intelligent driver-assistance system the carmaker is co-developing with Chinese autonomous driving company Momenta.

The two companies formalized their partnership in July to create a new assisted-driving solution tailored for the Chinese market.

The system is designed to deliver full-scenario navigation assistance across both highway and urban environments, aligning more closely with local traffic patterns.

R&D teams from Momenta and BMW are conducting joint development and road testing in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang in Liaoning province, and Nanjing in Jiangsu province.

The program adheres to BMW's validation standards, with large-scale on-road trials covering heavy-traffic conditions and demanding edge-case scenarios, supported by hundreds of millions of kilometers of simulation to assess stability and reliability.

The technology is built on Momenta's end-to-end "flywheel" foundation model and uses a unified perception-planning-control architecture.

It incorporates large-scale neural networks for environment sensing, path planning and high-precision vehicle control, enabling more advanced driving strategies.

Combined with BMW's experience in safety, driver-centric interaction and driving behavior, the system aims to interpret complex road situations and make decisions in a manner closer to a human driver.

Beyond the iX3, the solution will be rolled out to additional models as the two companies move to accelerate the deployment of intelligent driving-assistance technologies in China.