Tesla CEO Elon Musk should be able to smoke pot

Becoming a member of "Team Elon", Tyson described Musk, who also founded the Boring Company to dig tunnels to offer high-speed transit, as "the best thing we've had since Thomas Edison ".

Speaking about Musk's recent eccentric behavior, Tyson told CNBC that Tesla's CEO "must comply with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)." He has a publicly traded company he must obey, otherwise there are consequences that man is an individual. "

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With greatness can come quirks, Tyson says.

"I went to a very selective college (Harvard) where people were really smart and really weird, and strangeness became part of their behavior that I was just expecting with people who had unique abilities to think or 'innovate or project what a future might be,' Tyson told CNBC.

Tyson's comments are timely because Musk has had some remarkable weeks. Last week, Musk smoked a marijuana and tobacco joint, sipped whiskey and launched a flamethrower during a two-and-a-half hour video podcast with comedian Joe Rogan.

This followed a tweet last month where Musk said he was considering taking Tesla privately and then retracted. And reporters wrote that he had cried in an interview with the New York Times during which Musk called "last year the most difficult and painful" of his career.

At another Ariana Huffington's Twitter plea that Musk was slowing down and sleeping more, Musk said, "You think it's an option, that's not the case."