Hello,

I think using a driver for that distance is not such a bad idea.

You talk about cables. Do you plan to use more than one cable at the same time? If you do, you have to add the total length of all cables together if you plan to connect them to only one driver! E.g. if you plan to use 3 cables of 30 meters driven by only one driver you'll have 90 meters of cable hooked up to one driver!

Another thing is the sensor's end. Not only the processor should be able to drive the bus, also all sensors should be able to as well. Otherwise they can't talk back to the processor.
So if you plan to use extreme distances, you should add drivers on both ends of the cable. Maybe you could use RS485 drivers to cover the distance?

Happy designing