A method for detecting the direction of travel or for detecting a change in the direction of travel of a motor vehicle which has at least two wheel speed sensor arrangements which each comprise an encoder with an incremental scale and a plurality of scale graduations and a wheel speed sensor (SEa, SEb, SEc, SEd) and are connected to an electronic control unit, wherein, when a scale graduation is sensed the wheel speed sensors each transmit a speed signal to the electronic control unit, wherein the direction of travel or a change in the direction of travel is identified at least from the order in which the speed signals occur with respect to the individual wheel speed sensor arrangements. A computer program product for carrying out all the steps of the method is also disclosed.