Confusing disk space information

[MikePulsifer]

On my new M1 Air (1TB), Disk Utility is showing that there's a Data volume (803.22 GB), com.apple.os.update-{long string} (14.95 GB), and Free (174.75 GB).

A couple questions:

1. What is that "Free" volume(?).
2. Storage Management is saying I have 702.51 GB free out of 994.66. When you add up the data SM says I have on the computer and the amount it says I have available, that's more than the Data volume, so it includes "Free." What's going on here?

Thanks

 

[Zazoh]

I suspect in future updates that partition will be hidden. It is a System Snapshot that allows you, during updates and recovery, to boot the computer to restore itself. On mine, as I have the base model. It shows what I have free for the data portion. So, the Data portion and the free portion of the recovery drive are the same on smaller drives. Because you can't access it, it isn't really "Free."