It might be fun to see what they come up with but I doubt Shimano is very worried.
The thing about a bicycle that makes it an interesting design challenge is the wimpy motor. You simply don't have ANY power to spare so internal friction losses and added weight are huge drawbacks. Efficiency trumps everything else.
While people like to skoff that the power transmission of a bicycle hasn't changed much since the 19th century, that also means that it's had over 100 years of development time to optomise it's efficiency. Whatever replaces our chain and derailleur transmission systems will have to start by being 95% efficient or something like that. Modern internally geared hubs, for example, simply don't cut it.