See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyeMBKJLtWIAll are being compared to the standard in the field, Rohloff, but it seems to me the heavier boxes with big jumps between the gears and huge torque capability are aimed not at sporting or touring riders but at electric commuter bikes, indeed one of the boxes is a combined HGB/electric motor unit.
Several have the infrastructure already designed in to go over to full automatic gearing, which even the mighty Shimano company couldn't make a go of in the sort of bikes in which this forum's members are interested. I had one of of the fully automatic group sets, which you can see here:
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGsmover.htmlI have no idea why it failed in the market when many of the top brands were very enthusiastic about: it was technically superior, it worked, and I saw no reason to believe it wouldn't outlast the rest of the bicycle. Consumers probably thought it was unnecessary. That leads me to believe that, if the new manufacturers are competent marketers and not just wet-behind-the-ears engineers with dollar signs in their eyes, that most of these boxes are aimed a new cyclists. In that case, there are too many of them and it is safe to forecast that not all will survive.
Still on the subject of automatic gearboxes on bikes, it would be indicative to know what percentage of Nu-Vinci sales is with the optional automatic change (slide? -- Nu-Vinci is a CVT box, a Continuously Variable Transmission, something these days found only in large buses but once upon a time a feature of the Dutch DAF motorcar, which you may visualise as being driven by a belt sliding along a tapered axle).
Pricing at around the Rohloff mark is suggested as possible for some of these new boxes. I don't believe it. But even if it is true, mere price-matching is not a good sign when Rohloff is so deeply entrenched, has such a shining reputation, and so much loyalty from its user base. One of these five boxes has helically cut gears, which would contribute to silence and smoothness of power delivery and general refinement. That's a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) I and perhaps others would pay for. (Whether it is enough, once you've experienced how smooth a run-in Rohloff can be is another question altogether, which depends on your view of the likely mileage of the owners who'll end up with the helically-gear hub, as a Rohloff takes many thousands of miles to be run in.)
I think, in any event, that automatically assuming these new boxes will in the first instance be aimed at DIYers is misdirected. Their natural market is OEM, bicycle manufacturers. I also don't see fewer gears than the 14 of the Rohloff* as a barrier to market success for gearboxes aimed at electric bikes, nor a bit of extra weight that the likely electric motor will simply shrug off.
" I can't find the post on this forum in which I explained why for an electrified bike 14 relatively close-ratio gears is substantial overkill, and concluded that seven gears including an overdrive or two or even five when coupled with the Rohloff's range and a torquey electric motor with a big battery would be enough.
