The invention relates to a method for operating a drive system (1), and the drive system includes a drive engine (2) for a motor vehicle. The method includes following steps: carrying out an acceleration monitoring of the motor vehicle; switching (S4) to an alternative monitoring when a signal, which is relevant for the acceleration monitoring and for which a substitute signal exists, does not exist or has failed, and when a driver intent which is below a predefined threshold (S5) value is specified, and/or a braking intent is specified.