> This did not result in any policy changes.

Right, and why would it? The headline of the article you linked is:

"Driver of N.Y.P.D. Tow Truck Is Charged After Killing 7-Year-Old Boy"

Meanwhile, Cruise is a giant corporation who are performing research to fuel their for-profit business on public streets, which means they therefore answer to the authority of the state on the bounds of this research.

The state, seeing that the for-profit corporation is behaving in bad faith within the guidelines they've set up, are going to update policy / use the punitive actions outlined within that policy to answer to this bad faith behavior.

Can you explain to me why these seem to be comparable situations that should be treated identically to you?