Sick mane I ' m sure all your friends love your spot on political discourseI hope all this American self loathing comes to ahead . And if you ' re not American you have a pretty sick obsession friendo <| sep |> Live and learn lol <| sep |> Auto StartStop can be disabled using the dash mounted button that looks like a arrow revolving around a capital A with a line through it . When the light is on it means the system is turned off but every time you start the car it ' ll turn back on again . The system will only stop the engine if the electrical systems in the vehicle are fully charged . If you are using any Audi Connect features like 3 D Google Maps or WiFi Hotspot , AC on full blast or the heatedventilated seats on max settings it will not engage . If the vehicle is in Sport mode or Manual shifting mode it will not engage the Auto StartStop feature . If the Auto StartStop feature is turned on and the engine turns off when you come to a complete stop for longer than a moment it will automatically start the vehicle if it detects one of three variables the battery is being drained too fast from accessory usage , you take your foot completely off the brake pedal or you attempt to turn the steering wheel . Wear and tear on the mechanical starter motor is avoided by using a separate electrically charged starter to turn the engine back on every time the system is used . This motor is charged through regenerative braking and the alternator the system will not engage if it ' s not charged completely . Another reason for this setup is the ECU is told to never allow the mechanical starter to engage when the vehicle is not in Park , the seperate starter bypasses this using specific programming variables allowing the vehicle to be restarted in gear under very specific guidelines . It caught me off guard the first time I drove an Audi with that was equipped with it , after a couple times I got used to it and it never bothered me after that . At long timed stoplights and rushhour traffic it ' s fantastic .