Korea's smart city expo showed a wave of practical robots and city redesigns aimed at making daily life easier — good news for anyone who wants cities that work, less good for workers whose jobs get automated.

• Companies pitched cities on delivery robots, self-driving shuttles, package drones, street cleaners and robot arms that serve drinks.
• Hyundai showed a wheelchair that drives itself to your door and docks with the car, solving a mobility problem Tesla's Cybercab demo glossed over.
• Crosswalks that give slow walkers more time, pole barriers to protect pedestrians, and heated or cooled benches were the small ideas with the biggest payoff.
• Cameras and sensors are going everywhere, which means constant tracking — a bigger sticking point in the US than in Korea.
• Boston Dynamics and Korean robotics firms are shipping real working machines, not concept videos.

Outlook: Expect delivery robots, drones and automated transit to spread fastest in dense Asian cities, with rules on robot speed and safety likely to follow.