Ask a Hong Kong engineer why their product deserves a place abroad and you will often hear the same answer: the city is the hardest test bed they know. Towers scramble satellite signals, space is scarce, labour is expensive and safety rules leave little room for error. Survive that, the argument goes, and most other cities feel easy.

Three companies travelling with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) delegation are taking that pitch to Singapore Urban Mobility Week, taking place this week from 4 to 6 November. Trunk Tech builds driverless trucks for ports. FJDynamics delivers 3D scanners and autonomous robots Aerovision Technology Limited (Aerovision) makes thermal detection systems, driving simulators and satellite-jamming detectors.

One already runs a live deployment at Tuas Port. The other two are still knocking on doors. All three see Singapore as Hong Kong’s closest twin: dense, wealthy, short of manpower and obsessive about safety. Whether that kinship turns into contracts is what the week will test.

Also Read: Waymo’s Singapore entry raises the stakes for autonomous mobility in Asia

Trunk Tech: Taking the driver out of the port

Founded in 2017, Trunk Tech builds Level 4 autonomous trucks and the software that runs them as a fleet. Dr An Lifeng, Partner and Head of Product Center, frames it as a two-step plan. “Our first step is to create an AI driver, one that can replace the human driver, moving cargo and handling loading and unloading more safely and for longer,” he says. “The second step is to build an AI fleet manager.”

Each truck reads its surroundings and makes its own decisions, but it also shares what it sees with the fleet, which computes the best move for every vehicle. At a container terminal, the operating system assigns hauling jobs, the fleet plans routes and time windows, and the trucks handle exceptions themselves.

The headline number comes from China. Trunk Tech helped design a new terminal with no drivers from day one, supplying the vehicles, roadside units and cloud platform. “The smart zero-carbon terminal reduces staffing levels by 60 per cent versus traditional terminals.” An says. 

Singapore is familiar ground. Trunk Tech hosted Economic Development Board officials two years ago, then met more than 30 representatives from government, port groups, Changi Airport Group and YCH Group last year. It also became a licensed supplier to PSA and began volume deliveries for Tuas Port, which An calls “an extremely large-scale project”. The system is now in commercial operation.

The company now wants a local partner for truck integration, project delivery and on-site support. Its next frontier lies beyond the terminal gates: hauling between terminals and industrial parks, then intra-city and point-to-point freight.

Also Read: PSA, Granite Asia launch US$50M fund to scale supply-chain innovation

FJDynamics: Digitising the city, one scan at a time

FJDynamics was founded in Hong Kong. It now has about 1,000 employees, more than 60 per cent of them in R&D, and serves customers in more than 120 countries. Its technology portfolio includes high-precision positioning, 3D LiDAR scanning, digital mapping and intelligent equipment solutions for construction, agriculture, landscaping and facility management.

Group CFO Kiki Zhang keeps the philosophy plain. “Innovation should not be complicated or expensive,” she says. “It should solve real problems, improve productivity and make people’s jobs easier and safer.”

In Singapore, FJDynamics is exploring opportunities with the Building and Construction Authority and other relevant government agencies, industry stakeholders and local partners on construction digitalisation, virtual inspections and practical technology adoption. It has also undertaken a tree-scanning and digital-mapping pilot involving NUS and is developing a local operational presence to support customers and projects. The company is introducing its crane and heavy-lifting solutions to help improve safety in challenging construction-site conditions. “Singapore is much more than a sales market,” Zhang says.

Her focus is on a particular challenge: the shortage of experienced, skilled workers willing and able to operate in demanding environments such as construction sites, alongside high operating costs and complex infrastructure maintenance needs. LiDAR-based tools can help teams capture reliable site information for inspections and asset management. Intelligent equipment and assisted-operation solutions can reduce repetitive manual tasks and exposure to hazardous working conditions.

FJDynamics has already demonstrated the practical value of many of these solutions in Hong Kong. In Singapore, Zhang hopes to work with government agencies, transport and infrastructure operators, contractors, industry specialists and local companies on more pilot projects and application-led development, backed by the company’s growing local support capabilities. The ambition is to adapt proven solutions to Singapore’s needs and build long-term partnerships that deliver measurable value on the ground.

Also Read: How Hong Kong solves tech’s hardest problem: the final mile to market

Aerovision: From smouldering cargo to rehab clinics

Aerovision’s method, says General Manager Horace Cheung, is to find a pain point in logistics, transport or property management, build a core technology to fix it, then hunt for other industries that need the same fix.

Its thermal detection system began as a way to spot air cargo burning inside with no outward sign. It adjusts to ambient conditions and tells sunlight-heated cargo apart from internal heat, which cuts false alarms. The same system now screens passenger luggage at Hong Kong International Airport and flags water leaks and overheating equipment in buildings.

In Singapore, Aerovision is proposing it to the Land Transport Authority for the Bukit Panjang LRT. The target is “pitting”: arcing between a train’s carbon brushes and the power rail melts small dents into the metal, which raise resistance and generate heat. Abnormal heat patterns tell maintenance crews which rail sections need attention.

The simulators have taken a stranger route. Aerovision built one to train aircraft tow tractor drivers, since aircraft cannot reverse on their own, and a container truck simulator for a local university that won an award in Geneva. Then Singapore visitors saw something else in it: rehabilitation. Force-feedback steering, a motion platform and in-cabin sensors that track performance make it useful for patients recovering from trauma. A partner is now promoting it to hospitals and rehab centres. “It was something we never expected our system to be used on,” Cheung admits.

Singapore is Cheung’s preferred entry point among the region’s markets. “We don’t sell them a canned food solution,” he says. And he wants to see the market first-hand: “I always stick to my own eyes and ears when it comes to verifying and validating the information.”

Also Read: Hong Kong builds a test track for robots that keep failing outside the lab

The HKSTP badge and the Hong Kong stress test

Why travel in a delegation? For Cheung, it is credibility: buyers vet unknown vendors hard, but HKSTP’s screening works as a trusted gateway. An sees Hong Kong, where Trunk Tech opened an AI innovation centre in 2024, as the bridge between mainland firms and global markets.

All three point to the same edge: university talent, mainland manufacturing next door, and a city that punishes weak products. Building its jamming detector among Hong Kong’s towers, Aerovision had to beat signals bouncing off buildings. “If your solution works in Hong Kong, then it will work pretty much anywhere,” Cheung says.

Marking HKSTP’s first dedicated mobility mission in Singapore during Singapore Urban Mobility Week (4–6 November 2026), the HKSTP Pavilion will showcase 10 Park companies featuring breakthrough mobility solutions. Leveraging this government-led engagement platform, the mission facilitates direct engagement with key transport authorities, industry leaders, and potential partners across Singapore’s mobility ecosystem.

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