Sure, you can panic unwrapping a None, but there are two important distinctions.

First, this is a controlled panic, not a segmentation fault. The language is ensuring that we don't access the null pointer, or an offset from the null pointer. Null pointer access can be exploitable in certain circumstances (eg, a firmware or kernel). Your use of "exception" suggests you're thinking about it in Java terms however, and Java is equivalent here.

Second, you can only encounter this in explicit circumstances, when you have an Option<T>. Wheras in languages with a null type, any variable can be null implicitly, regardless of it's type.