CAN transceivers are also generally designed to be quite robust - they have substantial amount of current source/sink capability, and output short circuit protection. They are capable of handling the dominant/recessive bit battles on long cable lengths without incurring damage. Some of them have significant ESD and overvoltage protection built in, though more is often added as CANbus can be deployed in some very harsh electrical environments. You could also use some RS485 transceivers in place of the specific CAN ones, but the signalling levels still aren't the same.