WHEN plans to build Masdar City were unveiled in 2006, the project felt like something out of the science-fiction classic “Dune”. In the desert in Abu Dhabi, above one of the planet’s largest reserves of fossil fuel, would rise the world’s first carbon-neutral and zero-waste city. But it would not rise directly from the sands; all its buildings would sit on an elevated platform. Underneath, the citizens would zoom around in self-driving pods. Above, they would feel comfortable despite scorching temperatures, thanks mainly to clever urban planning, such as shady narrow streets oriented in such a way that they can be swept by cooling desert winds. More than six years later the future looks a bit less fantastic. Most of Masdar, designed under the aegis of Norman Foster, a British architect, will not sit on a podium; though models of the self-driving pods may find a place in a museum, the pods themselves are off the menu. Conventional cars, or at best electric ones, will roam the streets instead. When there are streets to roam, that is: the city was supposed to be completed by 2016, but the date has been pushed back to between 2020 and 2025.

Other much-hyped “smart-from-the-start” cities are showing similarly scant signs of success. Songdo, near Seoul, boasts flats and offices packed with built-in electronic hardware—in particular videoconferencing systems—but not people; few want to move there. PlanIT Valley in Portugal promises to be a wonder stuffed with sophisticated sensors. But though mooted since 2009, construction has yet to begin.

The financial crisis has a lot to do with the Portuguese problems, and those of Abu Dhabi too. Money was not an issue when Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s deep-pocketed development company, launched Masdar. “Build it and they will come” was the mantra. A rush of post-crisis realism to the head has led the company that operates the city “to slow down a bit and review our plans,” says Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, its boss.

All is not lost. Masdar was originally touted as a “living laboratory” for green technology; now some of its lessons are on how to make do with less. And right outside the city researchers are trying to find out how solar energy can be used directly for cooling and which solar panels are best suited for the desert. While PlanIT Valley is stalled, some of its technology will be used on the Greenwich peninsula in London. And one day, perhaps, someone will find a use for the hardware cluttering up Songdo that makes people want to live there.