I spent a good clip of time transitioning both the board and software stack to create a better platform. While closer to an out of the box experience, some wiring is still required to make the shields. However now that the code can be compiled with both desktop gcc and the Arduino IDE, I can easily visualize shrinking both the cost and size of the platform even more. At some point, I will spin an actual dedicated shield.

Interestingly even with the standard Arduino compiler, the Edison supports pthreads and stl. I have not found another board that supports this configuration. If I do intend transition to a cheaper micro, I will have to replace these structures in software. For my purposes, this is definitely possible but not really desirable. TODOs include building a second working proto shield and reconnecting the whole setup to the car.