A device and a method for cruise control in a motor vehicle, the cruise control being performable as a constant-distance regulation if at least one preceding vehicle has been detected by a radar sensor, or cruise control being performable as a constant-speed regulation if no preceding vehicle has been detected by a radar sensor. Measured object values for detected objects are supplied to the cruise control, which includes a computing device which determines an acceleration gradient for each measured value of each object and adds the individual acceleration gradients of the measured values for each object and outputs the added-up acceleration gradients for the object selected as the target object.