I've been meaning to ask about this. I recently picked up my US spec I4 and the parking brake does not seem to deactivate automatically when driving off, although it states in the manual that it should. Instead I get a warning message to manually deactivate the parking brake. Are other US I4 owners getting this behavior? What about V6 owners?
To the OP, you can just stop the engine and the car will automatically switch into park, or you can hit the P button. This puts the transmission in park which is separate from the parking brake. There is a setting to automatically apply the parking brake if you wish, although it will always automatically apply when on an incline. The early review complaints were related to manual shift delays on the DCT, but that's been resolved with a software update.