Who says we need mass immigration because there’s no way to automate the service sector? CNN has a piece on a restaurant in Germany where you order and pay at tabletop touch-screens and the food is delivered down spiral rails from the kitchen above. (The BBC’s story is here, and the restaurant’s home page is here.) From the BBC story:

“I wanted to come up with a complete new restaurant system,” Michael tells me, “one that would be more efficient and more comfortable”. Replacing waiters with helter-skelters [a Britishism for spiral slides — MK] and computers is fun for the customers. It also makes financial sense for the restaurant. “You can save labour costs,” explains restaurant spokesperson Kyra Mueller-Siecheneder. “You don’t need the waiters to run to the customers, take the orders, run to the kitchen and back to the guests.”

And no tipping.