I don’t see this coming to pass any time soon. Almost all large companies file huge numbers of patents that they have no intention of using.
What would not surprise me, is fully automatic shifting. With today's electric shifting and watt meters, it would take very little in the way of additional electronics to shift up or down depending on how much torque is being applied to the crank.
It would obviously need to be easily adjustable, due to differences in riders and the hour to hour stamina of the rider. A single lever on the handlebars would suffice.