# Interface Design for Responsible Remote Driving: A Study on Technological Mediation
## 2 Remote Driving and Urban Mobility
The ethical potential associated with RD mainly rests on the chance to reduce--better, optimize--car usage in cities, furthering expectations already attached to car-sharing services [21; 22]. Excessive car usage in urban areas lies at the root of a variety of severe social issues, such as traffic congestion prolonging commute times and causing stress for residents and road users or air pollution negatively impacting on public health. Moreover, disparities in car ownership create inequities in transportation access, affecting job opportunities and social mobility. Furthermore, the need of on-road parking places for increasingly larger vehicles--linked with a highly inefficient use of both road vehicles and public land--reduces green spaces and amenities for citizens, negatively affecting the quality of urban landscapes, city microclimate, neighborhood livability, and citizen well-being [23]. A substantial uptake of remotely operated car-sharing services might lower the number of vehicles driving through the city, optimizing traffic flows and, thus, leading to a reduction in traffic-related stress and air pollution [22]. Importantly, RD could also massively reduce the need for on-road parking spots and private car infrastructure, thus allowing for substantial redistributions of urban spaces to be repurposed into green areas and places for social activities, thus contributing to creating more welcoming and livable cities for everyone [24]. More urban space could also be dedicated to infrastructure for public transport or healthier, safer, and greener transport modes such as walking and cycling, which are commonly associated with ethically positive effects. Moreover, remotely operated car-sharing services--if financially accessible or properly subsidized--might help cope with the last mile problem and, thus, extend the accessibility of public transport options to poorly connected neighborhoods better than regular car-sharing services, since the availability of free vehicles could be sparse in given areas. If the potential benefits of RD are broad and promising, it is to be noted that their enjoyment entirely depends on its safe execution [25]. Rightly so, safety occupies a primary role in transportation ethics [26; 27]. Low-safety road transport technologies, even though otherwise beneficial, would hardly be justifiable. The inability to control vehicles safely would irreparably compromise the benefits listed above. This is particularly true for urban environments, where the road is shared with a plethora of vulnerable users (pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, e-scooter users, and so on). Hence, safety is a necessary condition for any RD application. And insofar as safe driving significantly depends on the exercise of responsibility behind the wheel, it becomes necessary to clarify how its technological mediation impacts on the operators' capability of exercising responsibility behind the remote wheel. The next section tackles this issue by focusing the attention on the crucial relation between RD safety, responsibility, and interface design.