I've read an article that they were about to get a lot more common outside of the US.
Apparently they can better "tune" emissions that way and since there are heavy fines and a lot of control going forward that's the argument they are using.
Also apparently manual gears are more expensive to manufacture, I think.
Again I read this on an article sometime ago so it could just be BS, I can't seem to find which it was.
Imo, they just want to greenwash this change. In reality they can save money and improve scalability and just standardize everything.
Of course they do. But the default is still manual in europe and most drivers prefer the control it gives them over their cars. In the US it's the opposite.
My guess is this is due to different styles of driving in the us and europe due to different infrastructure.