Concerning the reason why Cruise was stopped and its CEO deposed, the lying to regulators: The startup culture is really reluctant to work with regulators, and

Concerning the reason why Cruise was stopped and its CEO deposed, the lying to regulators: The startup culture is really reluctant to work with regulators, and imho, it's a mistake. There is reasons for that: a lot of startup/small companies exists only to fix an issue created by regulation (the first company I worked with did that), and arbitrary changes in details each time break our process (which is why 'startup mentality' is good there). The company/startup wants to avoid setting itself out of business so it's demands of more stability are poorly argumented/explained, the regulator is quite dense (or rather layered) and each time it ends up with either regulators or startups stonewalled, which isn't an issue when it doesn't involve people's lives. But I had to work a few years ago with European regulators. First the CNIL, French gdpr's watchdog, then on a h2020 project, that isn't pertinent here. The CNIL was really helpful. They understood our issues allowed us a research exception, and helped us design a better data architecture. Since then I'm not as wary, and I think even for new-ish small businesses, it might be a good idea to be as upfront as possible with the regulator. They won't put you out of business, and probably help you.