I’ll start keeping a log of when it happens
I've had the no-audio bug happen 7 more times since my last post in November and I recorded all of the details that I considered relevant from each instance.
The one factor that ties all 8 of the instances together is that
I very hurriedly tried to shift into gear after entering the car. I.e., the car was asleep, and after opening the driver's door, I pressed the brake pedal and tried shifting into reverse all within about 1-2 seconds or so -- too fast for the car to actually be ready to shift into gear, so in these instances I had to try shifting multiple times. I haven't had the bug occur even once when I enter the car and shift into gear at a "normal" pace.
Other things that were
not consistent factors between all of the instances: a cold-soaked battery / extreme cold outdoor temperature (it's happened several times in the upper 40s F or after a charging session with a warm-ish battery), seat heater on/off, and 12V outlet usage.
I'm no computer or software expert, so forgive me if this hypothesis is ignorant... but
I'm wondering if me VERY QUICKLY trying to shift into gear immediately after waking up the car from a sleep somehow interrupts the loading of certain drivers that are necessary for the audio system to work properly. (???)
(Also possibly worth noting: in half of these instances, the Homelink auto-close function has failed to execute to close my garage door as I backed out of my garage like it normally does. (The auto-close notification didn't even pop up on the screen. But I WAS able to manually use Homelink to close the door.) So I wonder if the audio and Homelink issues are possibly related.)