a robot on the brink of becoming a postal worker. this is dw business. i'm kate ferguson. thanks for joining me. germany's transport system is on its knees to day as workers stage, the biggest will kate, in decades, all long distance trains of being canceled on there are no flights in or out of nic and frankfurt airports, local transit shipping. ruth and part of the actual bond have also been affected by the war case. the van a union is calling for a 10 percent pay increase to keep pace with soaring inflation. germany estate rail operator dodge a bon house called a strike at groundless and unnecessary more in this not spring in reporter christy plots. and she's in the city of cologne. christy, how much disruption are you seeing? well, kate, the colona train station, which you can see behind me, is usually catering to over 300000 passengers every single day. as you can see were

see a couple pigeons behind me, but otherwise not a lot going on here. it's been this way all morning. this is, as you said, because there are no long distance trains running today. no regional trains, local trains are, most buses are also not running here in the area and in other parts of germany as well. even just to get here, i came from bond this morning, were dodge village offices. it's about 30 minutes away. i had to take a taxi to get here that cost over 80 euros one way. so just to give you an example of the kind of inconveniences people would be facing if they do want to travel to day and we're planning to rely on public transportation. and christine, which are the pigeons, are confused about what's going on as well. and concretely, what are the workers demanding? right, well the very unions are asking for a 10.5 percent increase in pay and within the next 12 months, this is due to the fact that inflation in germany and in, you know, other parts of the world as well. it definitely here in the euro zone has been very

high for an extended period of time. a lot of these workers are part of critical infrastructure here in germany, transportation the like we were saying, but also they're not necessarily earning quite a lot of money as well. that means that these are some of the people that are being hit, the hardest by the fact that consumer prices are up. now what they have been offered is a 5 percent increase over the next 27 months. they said this just won't do and that they are willing to go on strike longer than just today if their needs are not met . and they're not alone in their discontent. are they? this is the latest in a wave of sykes. we're seeing in europe. are we at the beginning of a new we're christmas and would you say, i mean, it's a great question, a, if you look around i, as you're saying, i mean we're seeing major strikes in france. we've all seen the images and of videos of, of things set on fire in paris, or we're seeing rail strikes in england as well. also strikes related to airlines in spain. i think it comes down to the what we're already talking about. the fact

that inflation all around the, the continents and also all around the globe is really hitting a lot of people hard. they're having a hard time making ends meet and that they're saying, hey, something needs to be done about this as to whether that's here in germany and france and other parts of the world. there are certainly some sort of movement taking place right now or whether that will escalate and turn into something larger remains to be seen, but people are certainly feeling the pinch with the high cost of living right now. all right. christie plaza in cologne. thank you. so much thanks. so he got a picture there from christi, if i just how big of an impact the strike is having on the grind. the backdrop to this option is of course, persistently high inflation. the latest figures showing prices rose 9 percent in germany in february, camacho, a year before spring and came and soon the presence of the eco institute of economic research now came. it's good to see you how big of an economic impact will this strike have? what i think was one day strike will have

a very limited impact. there will be some disruptions and some production losses, but the strike was announced beforehand. so companies could adjust to this, the impact would be limit that the key question is, will there be a longer strike later in the negotiation, or will there be a settlement without strikes if of course, if they was longer strike that would have severe impact on the economy and that would, that the recovery nat treatments public spending is under strain in germany right now. how likely are employers to buy to those worker demands? well, as always, i think there will be some kind of compromise. i think the, the employer is, will given to some extent, but of course there are limits to this. so i would expect something in the order of 7 percent may be. so a wage increase, which is still below inflation, but one which will give some relief to private households to the employees.

now if we look at the bigger picture, your institute has a new business climate survey at day. what stands out to you while the news is relatively good, we see an improvement in the mood. we also see this pessimism we had in the, in the past month receding. so companies are optimistic, this is because energy prices are coming down and also because the supply bottlenecks we had in the past years are eating some watts and that helps industry. so overall it's good news. the construction sector is an exception. there we have problems, a high interest rates, high prices, but the rest of the economy is recovering. and what sectors in particular are feeling optimistic right now. claim is what it's in particular manufacturing because of the improvements in supply bottlenecks. but what we also see is,

and across the board, improvement in, in the service sector, including the private sector, hotels, restaurants, so sectors that were hit by the pandemic. they are optimistic for the coming year. okay, so some good news that came in says president of the institute. thank you so much. thank you. now to some of the other global business stories making news. and another example of industrial action. israel's largest trade union group has launched a strike across the board. broad weight of factors including help trumpet banking, it's likely to paralyze large parts of israel or ruddy, shaky economy. the strike is in support of rising protests against prime minister benjamin netanyahu plan to overhaul the teachers ri, north carolina based lender 1st citizens bank is set to buy all deposits on loans

associated with silicon valley bank. sb be collapsed earlier this month after reports of a severe liquidity crisis prompted a bank run us regulation such 17 former sb be branches would open up the 1st citizens outlets on monday. saudi national bank chairman on your cordero has resigned after comments. he made about credit suisse prompted a slump in the bank stock value. saudi national bank was the main shareholder of credit suisse before its sale to fellows with the lender. you'll be, yeah. i think there will be a point in time when china's best known tycoon, jack moore has returned to china to visit a school in hung show that according to the china morning post mark the co founder of joined alibaba and fintech group and vanished from public view after criticizing

state banks in 2020, his disappearance was seen as part of the state cracked and on a private trade is to the peace trade. china foreign ministry says that an employee of japanese from after loss pharma detained this month, was suspected of engaging in espionage. tokyo have called for the man to be released. tensions have been growing between regional rivals, china and japan in recent months. so now whether it's the algorithms that determine what you see on your social media feeds or an uncommonly human sounding chart, boss, artificial intelligence is having a profound influence on our world. developments are happening at breakneck speeds, including in the postal factor. in our next report will introduce you to theo, a robot and delivery worker in training. the delivery service of the feature

from the outside, it looks like a box on wheels. by the inside, it's a kept artificial intelligence and a lot of high tech parts. this nearly autonomous robot might soon be delivering packages in germany. it's name is teal, it's cargo by based upon this vehicle. and it's lightweight electric vehicle fully electric, and it's very similar to we're autonomy car in terms of the sensors. so it's very safe. cameras and sensors allowed robert to detect everything in its environment, obstacles, pedestrians, any. when traffic lights changing it so incapable of driving down the road on its own, except it's not lead say, in a state where we can fully trust these systems. so we have a human intelligence on top which can then and supplement the computer intelligence with the right feedback buses. cars or trucks can now drive nearly autonomously on

german roads. so have safe, are these vehicles to other road users? is, is this frequency? so while it is safe, because 1st of all, all the manufacturer has to show the federal motor transport authority that these vehicles meet, the safety requirements that are desired and demanded by the low on autonomous driving. and furthermore, it is safe in operation because a control room is also required by law is consist bothered in speed stds the father . good for all cystic sources are if t o causes an accident, it's owner is liable. t o is controlled from a distance normal fleet of drivers, one employee monitor several tails. this reduces caused by 2 turks developer osmond rama condron still has a lot of work ahead of him. he's currently refining the prototype, not a simple task. every aspect of it is is challenging, but also i don't find it challenging because it's very passionate. it's very yeah.

if it's not hard, it's not fun. 3 weeks ago the prototype traveled to you to the park safely in a box. there it took its 1st drives on public robes. the semi autonomous vehicle still needs police protection. but next year this is likely to change to yield will be allowed to drive without an escort. and a reminder of the top is the story we're following for you. this, our a massive transport strike is underway in germany. rail air and shipping services are out of action as workers stage, the biggest walkers in decades. the via to union is calling for a 10 percent pay increase to keep pace with flooring inflation. germany sustains rail operator deutsch. a bomb has called the strike groundless and unnecessary

and that brings us to the end of today. so thank you so much for watching. for more you can always log on to d, w dot com slash business, and we're also on the d. don't be getting used youtube channel. so be sure to check us out there from me on the team here in berlin. it's the bike and stick with with ah,

ah, wood stoves are back and with some particle of pollution to save money, germans are turning on their fireplaces. it's cheap and cozy, but causes massive air quality problems. scientists are sounding the alarm, demanding all fireplaces be equipped with catalytic converters tomorrow. today. in 30 minutes on d. w. ah ha, we're all good to go beyond the obvious well,

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