Method for operating a vehicle in an automated driving operation, - in a regular operating mode, by means of a main control unit, a target trajectory being regularly ascertained, along which target trajectory the vehicle is guided in an automated manner to a predetermined target position, and a driving specification for an emergency operating mode being regularly ascertained, which driving specification is transmitted to a secondary control unit and stored there, - the vehicle being guided in an automated manner, in the event of a failure of the main control unit, into a stop position by means of the secondary control unit in emergency mode according to the driving specification and - the driving specification comprising information about a course of a path on which the vehicle is to be guided into the stop position and information about a course of a speed at which the vehicle is to be guided on the path, the course of the path being determined by a series of path points, characterized in that - the driving specification additionally comprises information about a position of at least one lane marking (SLFV, SRFV) relative to the path, - each path point of the path being assigned at least one distance value which corresponds to a distance (ALFV, ARFV) of the relevant path point to the left or right lane marking (SLFV, SRFV), - the distance values being provided as digital data which have a limited bit width for transmission to the secondary control unit, thereby limiting a representable value range of the distance values, - the distance values being reduced by scaling before transmission to the secondary control unit and being recalculated in the secondary control unit after transmission if a lane width is greater than the representable value range of the distance values. - in a regular operating mode, by means of a main control unit, a target trajectory being regularly ascertained, along which target trajectory the vehicle is guided in an automated manner to a predetermined target position, and a driving specification for an emergency operating mode being regularly ascertained, which driving specification is transmitted to a secondary control unit and stored there, - the vehicle being guided in an automated manner, in the event of a failure of the main control unit, into a stop position by means of the secondary control unit in emergency mode according to the driving specification and - the driving specification comprising information about a course of a path on which the vehicle is to be guided into the stop position and information about a course of a speed at which the vehicle is to be guided on the path, the course of the path being determined by a series of path points, characterized in that - the driving specification additionally comprises information about a position of at least one lane marking (SLFV, SRFV) relative to the path, - each path point of the path being assigned at least one distance value which corresponds to a distance (ALFV, ARFV) of the relevant path point to the left or right lane marking (SLFV, SRFV), - the distance values being provided as digital data which have a limited bit width for transmission to the secondary control unit, thereby limiting a representable value range of the distance values, - the distance values being reduced by scaling before transmission to the secondary control unit and being recalculated in the secondary control unit after transmission if a lane width is greater than the representable value range of the distance values.