How does starting and stopping work?

From the user interface, it feels just like driving an automatic transmission. You put the car in "D" and away you go. If you're lazy, you just move the selector between "P", "R", "N", and "D", and you might never even realize it's not just another automatic transmission. For example, when you want to stop, you hit the brake and the car eventually stops. At some point, no doubt, it goes into neutral but you don't have to worry about it. If you were in a gear other than first, it resets automatically to first for when you start again. You let your foot off the brake and the car starts going by itself -- again just like an automatic transmission. You can somewhat feel the clutch being slipped, but it's all very subtle.

The fun starts when you shove the selector to the right from "D", where it has "+" and "-" labels. At that point, the car won't shift automatically. It's up to you, either with the steering wheel paddles or the gearshift. Likewise, even if you're driving in "D", the computer will let you take over any time you press a paddle shift button. At that point, I believe the computer will say "okay, you're the boss", but if you leave it alone for a few seconds, it takes over again. When the shifter is on the +/- side, you have full control.

My only question is how you make it do a clutch drop for a fast start.

Meanwhile, with regard to the "B" pillar, if you're 6'3", I can imagine your eye level would be above the window line. I'm 5'11", and the new TT worked for me, although I did go out of my way to put the driver's seat in its lowest setting. Clearly, the Audi TT was never engineered for very tall drivers.