I'll share my experience, it might be useful to someone.
Golf purchased in Jan 2021, on lease. Since pretty much day 1, I started to get that popping sound from the speakers, then infotainment freezing, then either a) back to normal after 15-20 seconds or b) SOS Emergency call error, then the system is kaput. When that does happen, I get this:
- Android Auto freezes (I mainly use Waze), although the music keeps playing
- The car's GPS is fine at first, but then it slowly begins to show random locations, increasingly more far away than where the car actually is
- If ACC is on, and the speed is controlled by the system, the car slams on the brakes on the motorway doing 70 mph if the GPS shows that it's about to hit a roundabout miles away
- It's impossible to change privacy settings (function is not available)
Some comments/notes:
- When the SOS error shows, it disappears after the car is switched off for at least 10 minutes
- The car works perfectly fine if the internal Internet services are off (which happens when the privacy settings are set to maximum, all the way left)
- Another way to remove the SOS error message is to press the emergency call button for 50-60 seconds, until it initiates the emergency call. Be ready to cancel it on the screen before it actually connects. This clears the error and the infotainment system starts to work again (although it may reboot on its own once) without having to lock the car for 10 minutes
- The popping sound (and subsequent SOS error) seems to happen always at specific locations, and mainly in central London for me, almost never when I leave town. Therefore it is NOT a low signal issue.
- When the car shows a front assist not available message, in my case it always happens when it's really humid and cold outside, it disappears as soon as the car warms up (I believe the sensor is covered in frost or something)
I took the car to VW on several occasions, they ran software updates but never managed to fix the issue. Eventually, they literally gave up saying that there is currently no fix for this, which is embarrassing to say the least.
I'm really not happy with my Microsoft Golf.