diff --git a/autoinstall-schema.json b/autoinstall-schema.json
index 34a5c22c..05b21120 100644
--- a/autoinstall-schema.json
+++ b/autoinstall-schema.json
@@ -127,10 +127,7 @@
                 "id": {
                     "type": "string"
                 }
-            },
-            "required": [
-                "search_drivers"
-            ]
+            }
         },
         "network": {
             "oneOf": [
diff --git a/subiquity/server/controllers/source.py b/subiquity/server/controllers/source.py
index 06373a9c..9c04d5df 100644
--- a/subiquity/server/controllers/source.py
+++ b/subiquity/server/controllers/source.py
@@ -64,7 +64,6 @@ class SourceController(SubiquityController):
                  "type": "string",
              },
          },
-         "required": ["search_drivers"],
     }
     # Defaults to true for backward compatibility with existing autoinstall
     # configurations. Back then, then users were able to install third-party
@@ -89,11 +88,7 @@ class SourceController(SubiquityController):
             # "source: null" despite "type" being "object"
             data = {**self.autoinstall_default, "id": None}
 
-        # search_drivers is marked required so the schema validator should
-        # reject any missing data.
-        assert "search_drivers" in data
-
-        self.model.search_drivers = data["search_drivers"]
+        self.model.search_drivers = data.get("search_drivers", True)
 
         # At this point, the model has not yet loaded the sources from the
         # catalog. So we store the data and lean on apply_autoinstall_config.