A method for a safety concept for an AC battery, in which the AC battery includes a central controller, a plurality of battery modules which respectively have a power board with a plurality of switching states, a plurality of contactors, a plurality of current sensors, a fault loop and a high-speed bus and is connected to a traction machine. The central controller has a hardware-programmable processor unit with at least one microprocessor core on which a control program is configured to control the battery modules, the plurality of contactors and the fault loop. A state machine is implemented by the control program. The battery modules are connected, starting from the central controller, via the high-speed bus and the fault loop. If an abort fault occurs, the AC battery is changed to a safe operating state. The safe state is achieved at least by emergency disconnection of the central controller.