A method and a device for controlling automatic emergency braking of a motor vehicle to reduce the severity of a collision of a vehicle with an object, the position and/or speed of the object with respect to the host vehicle being determined via an object detection device, and this information being sent to a collision detection device which ascertains whether a collision with an object is imminent and, on detecting a collision, triggers emergency braking and ascertains a collision instant, emergency braking being terminated after the period of time until the determined collision instant has elapsed.