Does not surprise me. Most Europeans have not even adapted to automatic transmission in cars, and still believe that a human can switch gears better with manual transmission (which has not been true for decades now). Makes me wonder if they ever adapt to fully automated driving.
(And yes, I'm saying this as a European).
Either way, I don't think the prevalence of manuals in Europe is entirely (maybe not even mostly) about not giving up control to the machine.
Frankly, I'm a little dubious of automatic transmission. Perhaps I've just been driving the wrong cars, but I haven't found an automatic gearbox that can match a human being. For instance, if I'm descending a steep hill, I'll stick the car in a lower gear, but an automatic always chooses the higher gear.
And personally I never do for the simple reason that brakes are a lot cheaper than transmissions. And I rarely descend a hill long enough and steep enough that brake heating is a serious problem. (And when I do I usually just slow down, and stay slow.)
F1 drivers did until it got banned. In fact, if I'm not mistaken I believe our more advanced automatic transmissions came from F1.
They're an option on the more expensive Audis and a few other manufacturers have them.
A quick search for "CVT reliability" produces pages of horror stories related to the Audi (and other) CVTs.
The CVT is only available on the A4 and A6 (not the A3, A5, A7, A8, Q5, Q7, et al). Also, the CVT is only available with the smaller engine options. Finally, the CVT cars are front wheel drive only, no quattro available.
That is what I mean by "not mature".