As we draw near the Labor Day Holiday in the United States, many of you will be traveling and trying to squeeze the last drops out of summer before kids go back to school and work ramps up for the rest of the year.

Related to that will be people using all of the gadgets that cars provide to keep us in contact with our offices, friends and family.  This interesting article from Mashable speaks to the fine line between innovation as you drive and distraction.  From the article:

The social networking revolution is apparently not something you can drive to. A Super Bowl ad for the Chevy Cruze showed a guy heading home from a date and then using a voice-activated version of Facebookto access his date’s status update. But that’s not a real-world technology and may never become one.

The truth is, the auto companies are gun shy about adding too many social media hooks into their vehicles. The main reason is that they could distract drivers. Opposition by transportation secretary Ray LaHood doesn’t help, either.

For four years, though, Ford and Microsoft have offered a middle ground with their Ford Sync technology. With Sync, drivers can do old-school social networking activities, like making hands-free phone calls and adjusting music via voice control, but Sync also lets you receive texts (which are read to you) and reads your tweets — activities that let drivers stay connected, but don’t distract them, according to Ford. The technology is now in 2.5 million cars, trucks and crossovers.

Read the full article here on the Mashable website, and have a safe and relaxing holiday.