The problem isn't that the bike has an automatic shifting system.
The problem is that the bike is a $100 Chinese K-Mart bike with a gimmick that the company is charging an extra $300 for.
The problem is that the biggest problem with bikes for new riders is not the difficulty of shifting, but the fact that the riders experience sufficient pain and discomfort that they give up riding.
The problem is that without the availability of a sufficient range of frame sizes, and expert guidance in achieving proper fit, the typical customer for a Landrider is no more likely to get a comfortable fit on one of these than they are on a Pacific from Target.
The problem is that when the purchaser finally gives up and sells the thing at a garage sale, they're going to be even more bitter about cycling as a fun and practical pursuit because they overpaid so much.
As an over-50 rider myself, I know very clearly how important fit is to a middle-aged rider. It doesn't take much to achieve a fit that's bad enough to cause knee or back or wrist or neck pain. A younger rider may shrug off a level of discomfort that an older rider can't long tolerate. Yet that older rider is the target market for these bikes.
IMO, the shifting issue is mostly a straw man, a low-priority issue being made to appear important because it's so easy to build a marketing campaign around. It's much easier to label and pitch to a non-cycling audience than the issue of fit would be, and much cheaper to create a product that then "addresses" the "problem."
And don't you think that if a cheap autoshift design like this could actually be made reliable and effective, that the major brands would be all over it like a blanket? There's a reason you can't test-ride an Autobike in a bike shop.
RichC