1. A method for the detection of an object in the surroundings within view of an optical sensor attached to a vehicle, comprising: determining a relevant spatial region below a horizon within view of the optical sensor; producing a gray scale image by means of the optical sensor, said gray scale image including a relevant image region corresponding to the relevant spatial region; adding gray scale values for every column of pixels within the relevant image region of the gray scale image; producing an upper envelope of a gray value signal integrated column-wise; determining a difference between the upper envelope and the gray value signal in order to obtain a one-dimensional profile representing the vertical orientation within the relevant image region of the gray scale image; and searching the difference to detect an object, said searching being carried out only in the relevant image region corresponding to the relevant spatial region below the horizon.