A mobile terminal for controlling a vehicle using a short message by establishing authentication information to establish mutual authentication between the vehicle acting and a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal requests initial information needed for an automatic control function from the vehicle using the authentication information, and checks the vehicle's automatic control available items associated with the initial information received from the vehicle. Upon receiving user's selection information needed for the automatic control function, the mobile terminal generates a short message containing a control command corresponding to items from among the checked automatic control available items, and transmits the short message to the vehicle. The user uses a short message in a mobile communication network to remotely control a vehicle. User interface using icons allow the user to conveniently control the vehicle at a remote site.