At a yearly event called Curbivore, innovation in the gig economy is on display.

“If you’ve ever walked a curb, sat on a curb, dined on a curb seen a little delivery robot on a curb this is the conference for you if you care about any of that,” explained Harry Campbell, known as The Ride Share Guy and co-founder of Curbivore, which was recently held in Downtown Los Angeles.

This year’s event had over 35 exhibitors. A combination of delivery tech, robots, food and vendors trying to figure out the future of delivery and more.

“That type of freedom and flexibility of being able to take a day off, take a week off.. You don’t get that with a lot of W2’s,” said Pedro Santiago, a gig worker who chronicles his journey on YouTube. He traveled from Saint Louis to attend the event.

“I think it’s still a really good way to make money if you’re willing to adapt and change because these apps are changing every day,” said Santiago.

There’s plenty of tech trying to solve last mile delivery – everything from tiny robots to autonomous vehicles and scooters.

“This vehicle is a self stabling electric scooter, gives you 100 miles of range at 45 miles an hour. This basically allows you to take some of those 5 mile trips other than a 5 passenger car,” explained Tim Huntzinger of XOTO.

Also on display was a vehicle called Automato. Think EV vending machine on wheels and inspired by the automats of the 1950’s.

“Everything is electric solar powered with energy storage,” said Deloss Pickett of Bib Technologies. That stands for Business in a Box. The company also has vehicles for serving a frozen yogurt style treat and a pizza delivery vehicle with a heated compartment.

Uber is making a bigger push into grocery delivery. The company was promoting a new delivery partnership with luxe-grocery retailer Erewhon.

“There’s people that only do groceries and they really prefer that side… they’re not a people person and they don’t want people in their car,” said Cameron Cole of Uber.

Cole explained that Uber is making it easier for grocery gig workers to pay for items using digital payment cards delivered instantly to their phone. Also, the company is working on a system that makes it easier for grocery shoppers to ask a customer for substitutions if an item is out of stock.

Candace Nelson of Sprinkles cupcakes fame was signing copies of her new book Sweet Success.

“I look at the food business through the lens of innovation always,” Nelson said.

Speaking of innovation, how about pizza making robots in the back of a truck?

“Our 30 SpaceX engineers have done a very amazing job designing all the super reliable robotic, now it’s time to start selling and see if people really want to eat our pizza,” said Benson Tsai, founder of Stellar Pizza.

The company was sampling pizzas made in the back of their mobile truck, which has been pulling up to college campuses and selling pizzas for about $7-8, which Tsai says is less expensive than the competition.