The car is optimistic in general, if you drove at city speeds on flat land. But if you tell it exactly where you're going, it calculates based on the route required. If you started at the top of a mountain pass, the more accurate range would actually show MORE miles than the general gauge. "Omg, Tesla is under promising range now!!"

The tiny battery gauge is just showing what % the charge is, either in % or in % * epa range. There is no lie, just showing you the state of your battery pack currently. If you want to see what charge you will have in the future taking into account your driving then you navigate to your destination and the car makes a very detailed estimate of state of charge in % at your destination.

I leave my car showing battery as % all the time, because the % * epa range number is meaningless