Its not quite biased, so much as incomplete.
There are a few types of "automatics" in todays world. You've got planetary gear, electronically operated manual (DCT and SCT), and CVT in most cars now.
The traditional hydraulic planetary gear transmission. These is what you see in most automatic cars. And aside from very few exceptions, this transmission offers horribly sloppy control over the gearing. If you want to downshift, they don't rev-match, they don't do it smoothly, and often times the programming allows them to do a sudden downshift mid-corner, and will upset the chassis balance. A planetary gear transmission requires constant fluid pressure to hold the car in gear, this produces heat. The more power the transmission is required to hold, the more heat it produces and the more wear you get on the clutch packs. Also, when the torque converter isn't locked up its producing extra heat as well. So you need Good fluid and cooling to make these last. But when properly built, they beat the pants off every other transmission for pure acceleration.
The new auto's are Electric clutch operated Single and Dual manual designs. Single is just like your regular manual transmission, except a computer operates the clutch application as well as shift forks. I've been in a car equipped with a SCT, notably a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, its like a kick in the head every shift. Its never comfortable, and its only marginally faster than a good driver. It does however offer more consistent performance.
The DCT transmission we have come to know and love is equipped with two main shafts, one for even gears, and one for odd gears. It also has two clutches. The computer predicts which gear you will choose next and automatically shifts the next gear. However, because its a dual mainshaft, if you are in say 2nd, and accelerating, 3rd gear is already preselected. And when you command the upshift all it does is disengage the even gear clutch, while applying the odd gear clutch. The shift is much faster. Upon completion of the shift, the transmission then queues up 4th gear so its already engaged while the even clutch is disengaged. If however, you surprise the transmission it needs to queue up 2nd gear again, so you can catch them out occasionally. However as fast as these respond, its difficult to do, especially with modern ones.
CVT is quite frankly a good idea on paper, great even. However the belt systems have proven problematic to big power or high torque applications. Best to limit it to small economy cars for now.
