My guess is that it will be more reliable and will far less warranty claims than manually equipped cars and will take at least 1 second off the 1/4 mile.
There was such an uproar, mostly in the US, over the new M5 having only the SMG 7 speed gearbox that BMW is releasing a 6-speed manual this fall.
Americans don't seem to be as infatuated with driving like Michael Schumacher as the Europeans are.