Exactly what I said back then - who well and truly needs eight gear ratios? Seven's already pushed it one step too far (I'm a firm believer that six well-spaced ratios are all that a good engine / transmission combination needs) and my question is: where will it all end? Will the next generations of automatic transmission have 10 ratios or 11 maybe?

In my experience and personal opinion, conventional automatic transmissions have a drive and shift quality of their own character. As the industry adds more ratios (hence narrowing the torque gap between gears by keeping the engine revs more closely spaced) automatic transmissions will begin to feel more like CVTs than distinctly "stepped" gear ratios. And I hate CVTs...