Stroustrup has proposed a way to add safety to C++. It's called "C++ Core Guidelines", and "GSL".

https://isocpp.org/blog/2015/09/bjarne-stroustrup-announces-...

https://github.com/Microsoft/GSL

I watched his talk -- wondering if anyone is using it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OEu9C51K2A

Using GSL gives adds some safety to pointers and memory allocation -- while providing the bare-metal performance that C is known for. (It still feels very low-level.)