To improve road safety, a method for warning about a hazardous situation in road traffic is specified, wherein the hazardous situation is identified by means of a vehicle guidance system and a warning system is to used to determine whether a road user is within an effective range in surroundings of a motor vehicle. Depending on the identified hazardous situation, the warning system is used to transmit a warning signal to the road user before an automatic reaction to the hazardous situation is initiated or prepared by means of the electronic vehicle guidance system.